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BX  9178  .J6  16 

Jones,  John  Sparhawk,  1841 

1910. 
The  invisible  things,  and 


The  Invisible  Things 


The  Invisible  Things 

And  Other  Sermons 

J.  Sparhawk  Jones 

Minister  of  Calvary  Churchy  Philadelphia 


Longmans,  Green,   and    Co. 

91   and  93  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 

London,  Bombay,  and  Calcutta 

1907 


Copyright,  1907 
By  J.  Sparhawk  Jones 


^11  rights  reser-veJ 


THE   UNIVERSITY   PRESS,   CAMBRIDGE,   U.  S.  A. 


CONTENTS 

Page 

The  Invisible  Things i 

Posthumous  Influence i6 

The  Blessing  of  the  Pure  in  Heart 34 

A  New  Year  Sermon 51 

The  Need  of  Faith 71 

Worship  God 84 

The  Uses  and  Ends  of  Life 98 

A  Great  Certainty 112 

Providential  Arrangements 127 

How  Old  Art  Thou? 141 

Permanent  Values 156 

The  Cost  of  Progress 175 

The  Sun  and  the  Rain 189 

The  Passing  of  Aaron 204 

The  Great  Multitude 220 


The  Invisible  Things 


THE    INVISIBLE   THINGS 

For  the  invisible  things  of  hitn  from  the  creation  of  the  world 
are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that  are  made, 
even  his  eternal  power  and  Godhead ;  so  that  they  are  without 
excuse.  —  Romans  i.  20. 

IDOLATRY  and  vice  had  taken  possession  of 
the  world  outside  of  Judaism,  and  Paul,  in 
opening  his  epistle  to  the  Christians  living  in 
Rome,  refers  to  the  universal  decay  of  morality  and 
contrasts  the  elevation  and  excellence  of  the  Gospel 
with  the  practices  of  paganism.  He  also  intimates 
that  the  Gentiles  could  have  done  better  and  acquired 
cleaner,  clearer,  and  more  just  ideas  concerning  God 
and  His  moral  government  had  they  used  their  moral 
sense  with  care  and  fidelity.  He  does  not  by  any 
means  say  that  the  Gospel  is  superfluous,  or  that 
man  has  by  nature  all  the  data  and  materials  he 
requires ;  but  only  that,  without  the  Christian  reve- 
lation, the  heathen  world  might  have  done  better  in 
the  sphere  of  religious  conceptions  and  of  practical 
conduct.  Paul  looks  upon  the  world  at  large  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  Jew ;  and  although  his  own  com- 
patriots were  no  paragons,  there  had  yet  been  a 
moral  elevation,  simplicity,  and  purity  of  doctrine. 


2  THE    INVISIBLE    THINGS 

and  a  regulated  fancy  and  strict  decorum  in  the 
matter  of  worship  and  the  rituahstic  parts  of  rehgion 
of  which  other  peoples  were  totally  destitute.  True, 
Israel  had  fallen  into  idolatry  periodically  during 
his  long  historic  day,  and  had  been  unfaithful  to  the 
deposit  of  truth  committed  to  his  keeping.  The 
prophets  broke  forth  upon  their  people  with  terrible 
earnestness,  scathing  rebuke,  and  biting  satire;  but 
bad  as  the  nation  was,  it  had  shed  light  in  the 
darkness.  It  elaborated  no  such  absurd  mythology 
as  the  heathen  had  done,  nor  published  such  im- 
possible accounts  of  the  nature  and  occupations  of 
Deity,  or  of  the  dead,  or  of  the  fittings  and  furnish- 
ings of  the  future  state.  The  Hebrew  did  not  com- 
mit himself  to  fanciful  or  ridiculous  details  touching 
secret  and  unrevealed  things;  his  religious  theory 
was  unspeakably  more  sober,  simple,  lofty,  and 
acceptable  to  the  growing  intelligence  of  mankind, 
immeasurably  in  advance  of  Assyria,  Babylon, 
Eg>'pt,  Hellas,  or  Rome.  St.  Paul's  language,  how- 
ever, in  this  connection  is  noteworthy,  inasmuch  as 
it  seems  to  hint  that  neither  Judaism  nor  Christian- 
ity is  absolutely  essential  to  the  formation  of  such 
a  character  and  behavior  as  God  can  approve. 
Superficially  considered,  he  seems  to  say  that  if 
no  higher  revelation  had  been  granted,  nature  would 
have  been  enough. 

The  state  of  the  case  was  this :  A  Christian  church 
had  been  organized  in  the  capital  of  the  world,  com- 


THE   INVISIBLE   THINGS  3 

posed  probably  of  divers  nationalities ;  some  of  them 
were  Jews,  others  persons  of  heathen  birth  and  edu- 
cation, some  few  belonged  to  Caesar's  household  and 
were  servants  in  the  palace  or  connected  in  some 
capacity  with  the  imperial  government.  Naturally, 
then,  Paul  alludes  in  this  writing  to  the  notorious 
corruptions  and  unspeakable  vices  prevailing  in 
those  lands  where  the  sun  of  civilization  was  sup- 
posed to  have  climbed  highest.  Boldly  he  denounces 
the  scandals  and  infamies  by  which  pagan  society 
was  disfigured  and  by  which  the  Roman  Christians 
were  daily  confronted.  He  arraigns  that  pompous 
and  glittering  civilization  which  conceived  itself  to 
be  the  head  and  front  of  the  whole  world,  — :  the 
fine  gold  of  humanity,  the  consummate  flower  of 
the  human  race.  Its  lordly  masters  Paul,  the  Jew  of 
Tarsus,  cites  before  the  bar  of  the  Christian  morality, 
and  declares  that  they  might  have  been  saved  from 
much  folly  and  sin  had  they  used  aright  their  moral 
reason  and  its  perceptions. 

Paul  says  that  the  heathen  world  was  without  ex- 
cuse, because  had  men  looked  at  natural  law  and  the 
external  visible  order,  the  revolving  machinery  of 
earth  and  sky,  and  the  reflections  to  which  it  gives 
rise ;  had  the  Gentiles  taken  this  whole  phenomenon 
seriously,  they  would  have  known  and  done  better 
than  they  did.  They  would  not  have  put  such  a 
grinning  mask  on  Deity  as  their  fables  made  of  Him, 
nor  would  they  have  tumbled  and  wallowed  in  such 


4  THE    INVISIBLE    THINGS 

swamps  of  lust  and  imnamable  iniquity  as  defaced 
their  best  civilization.  In  other  words,  he  intimates 
that  there  are  footprints  of  God,  traces  of  His  action 
in  nature,  outcroppings  of  divine  attributes  in  the 
creation,  by  taking  heed  to  which  serious  minds  may 
catch  some  hints  of  what  one  ought  to  do  and  to 
be :  the  invisible  things  of  God  may  be  discerned  or 
surmised  through  the  things  that  are  made. 

Such  appears  to  be  Paul's  doctrine  concerning 
the  heathen  and  their  moral  accountability;  and 
indeed  there  can  be  no  question  that  man  has 
native  faculties  sufficient  to  get  an  inkling  or  sus- 
picion of  a  mind  and  will  above  his  own.  By 
original  outfit  and  endowment  he  can  transcend 
the  visible  and  perishable  and  apprehend  ideas  and 
relations  beyond  present  experience.  In  a  negative 
w^ay  he  can  think  of  infinity,  he  can  picture  a  more 
perfect  and  harmonious  character,  he  can  imagine  an 
organism  more  pliant  and  powerful  than  the  human 
body,  he  can  think  of  a  better,  brighter,  a  sinless 
world.  He  can  also  detect  power,  sequence,  logic, 
punctuality,  a  measure  of  justice  and  benevolence  in 
the  framework  of  nature  and  its  processes;  he  can 
see  a  reason  in  the  universe,  he  can  suspect  mind 
lurking  behind  matter.  Thus  the  earth  and  sky,  the 
revolving  seasons,  the  rotating  climates  and  crops, 
rising  and  setting  suns,  waxing  and  waning  moons, 
the  inundations  of  a  Nile,  the  eruption  of  a  volcano, 
the  slipping  of  an  avalanche,  the  stars  kindling  their 


THE    INVISIBLE   THINGS  5 

nightly  fires,  —  such  things  have  furnished  a  per- 
petual school  to  the  human  mind  and  have  always 
arrested  attention  and  awakened  thought.  Besides 
these,  significant  occurrences  in  society,  the  toppling 
of  thrones  and  passing  of  dynasties,  the  retributions 
and  compensations  of  life,  what  are  called  Provi- 
dential events,  have  produced  an  analogous  effect 
and  have  led  earnest  thinkers  behind  consequences 
in  search  of  causes.  Man,  of  all  animals,  has  this 
capacity  to  receive  notices  from  the  outer  infinite,  to 
generalize  them  into  principles  and  make  them  a 
basis  for  calculation.  Human  nature,  with  its  feel- 
ings of  wonder,  fear,  awe,  reverence,  may  find  a 
kind  of  revelation  in  dumb  nature,  in  its  beneficent 
adaptations,  in  its  prodigious  forces,  in  all  that 
arouses  the  curious  intellect  and  appeals  to  the 
aesthetic  reason. 

We  ought  not  to  think  that  God  left  mankind 
without  some  hint  of  His  being  and  activity  and  of 
His  requirements,  until  the  long  procession  reached 
Sinai.  On  the  contrary,  the  earth  has  been  crammed 
with  evidences  of  power,  of  systematic  arrangement, 
of  superhuman  skill  and  foresight,  even  of  goodness, 
since  it  was  cool  and  hard  enough  for  the  foot  of  man 
to  tread.  And  Paul  argues  that  these  hints  and 
flashes  were  sufficient  for  the  tribes  and  peoples  who 
witnessed  them,  had  they  followed  their  lead  and 
applied  their  instruction.  Men  have  always  had  a 
revelation  of  power  in  the  earthquake  and  tornado; 


6  THE    INVISIBLE   THINGS 

a  revelation  of  goodness  in  the  light,  heat,  food,  the 
plenty,  all  the  materials  of  subsistence  and  enjoy- 
ment granted  them;  a  revelation  of  order  and  care 
in  the  uniformities  of  the  natural  world. 

So  that  this  Apostolic  sentence  certainly  means,  for 
one  thing,  that  God  has  never  left  Himself  without 
a  witness;  divine  attributes  have  stared  upon  man 
ever  since  he  had  an  eye  to  see.  At  first,  mayhap, 
only  a  little  —  one  principle,  one  truth  at  a  time,  one 
tendency  of  things,  one  practical  idea  or  prudential 
maxim  —  was  inculcated.  He  who  first  fell  from  a 
height  learned  something  about  falling  bodies;  he 
who  first  ate  of  the  poisonous  beriy  learned  concern- 
ing what  is  hurtful  and  destructive ;  he  who  planted 
the  first  seed  or  blade  of  grass  or  row  of  corn  learned 
something  about  cause  and  effect,  sowing  and  reap- 
ing; he  who  lay  idly  sprawling  under  the  breezy 
trees  in  seeding  time  learned  his  mistake  when  har- 
vest had  come.  He  who  discovered  fire,  who  first 
struck  the  flint  and  lit  the  underbrush  and  dry  crac- 
kling leaves  and  dead  wood,  made  a  wide  stride 
toward  the  power  and  comfort  of  man  and  toward 
modern  civilization.  He  who  first  invaded  the  equal 
right  of  another,  the  first  Cain  who  struck  the  first 
blow  at  personal  property  or  security  and  felt  the 
subsequent  remorse,  —  the  spurn  of  others,  the  re- 
buke of  public  opinion, — learned  something  concern- 
ing higher  law  and  moral  obligation  and  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  majestic  form  of  justice. 


THE   INVISIBLE   THINGS  7 

Of  course  all  this  was  a  highly  imperfect  revela- 
tion, but  it  was  sufficient  for  the  growth  of  some 
virtues  and  recommended  caution  and  self-restraint. 
Invisible  things,  a  sense  of  dependence  upon  a  Su- 
preme Power  and  direction,  the  need  of  carefulness, 
vigilance,  self-control,  doubtless  sprang  up  early 
without  a  Bible  or  any  supernatural  revelation  and 
as  the  result  of  experience  and  inference.  And  the 
rise  of  such  great  ideas  and  their  early  appearance 
has  led  to  the  term  natural  religion,  because  man 
presumably  got  at  them  by  the  use  of  his  natural 
powers.  Very  early  he  began  to  believe  in  a  mys- 
terious and  mighty  Will  above  his  puny  agency, 
whom  adoration,  prayer,  and  sacrifice  might  placate 
and  influence.  He  began  also,  at  an  early  stage,  to 
see  the  expediency  and  propriety  of  just  dealing,  of 
kindness,  hospitality,  and  helpfulness.  Repentance, 
restitution  of  stolen  property,  compensations  of  one 
kind  and  another,  would  naturally  suggest  them- 
selves to  the  growing  human  mind.  Thus  truths 
and  duties  would  gradually  dawn,  not  all  at  once, 
but  "  by  divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners." 
In  other  words,  given  the  human  mind  and  suffi- 
cient time  and  the  due  environment,  certain  ideas, 
beliefs,  presentiments  of  a  moral  and  religious 
kind  would  arise  and  gather  strength  and  probabil- 
ity, because  man  is  man,  mind  is  mind,  or,  as  Paul 
states  the  situation,  "  the  invisible  things  of  God  are 
understood  by  the  things  that  are  made." 


8  THE    INVISIBLE    THIXGS 

Evidently,  then,  there  has  been  a  tardy  develop- 
ment in  the  sphere  of  religious  doctrine.  God  has 
discovered  Himself  to  the  race  by  small  and  ever- 
growing increments.  There  has  been  a  quasi-gospel 
for  every  age  of  the  world,  some  leading  idea,  some 
salient  truth,  some  important  principle  or  law  of 
conduct,  some  sound  vital  thing,  of  the  invisible 
order,  to  be  believed  and  acted  upon  by  every  genera- 
tion. One  has  known  more  and  seen  farther  than 
others,  but  all  have  known  something  true  and  pro- 
fitable and  enough  to  call  forth  the  best  powers  of 
the  soul  and  to  answer  the  purpose  of  a  moral  trial. 
And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  the  finest  thought, 
the  loftiest  idealism,  the  most  superlative  thing  man 
at  any  time  could  think  or  feel  or  know,  was  the 
Gospel  for  him  and  his  age.  And  his  part  was  just 
to  be  loyal  to  it;  to  do  the  best  he  knew  or  could 
find  out;  to  interpret  the  invisible  things  by  such 
visible  ones  as  were  available  for  that  purpose. 
IMoreover,  as  knowledge  widened  and  man  got  more 
insight  and  penetration  and  reached  new  stages  in 
his  ascension,  in  that  ratio  God  and  religion  and 
supernal  truths  acquired  new  proofs  and  got  en- 
riched by  fresh  discoveries  and  fortified  by  stronger 
arguments.  Unquestionably  the  object  of  religious 
faith  and  the  volume  of  religious  knowledge  varied 
from  time  to  time.  The  object  of  Rahab's  faith  was 
the  capture  of  Jericho  by  the  Hebrews  and  their 
invasion  of  Canaan  as  God's  besom  to  sweep  it  clean. 


THE    INVISIBLE    THINGS  9 

The  object  of  antediluvian  faith  was  Noah's  ark 
and  the  dekige.  The  message  for  the  age  of  Jere- 
miah and  Ezekiel  was  the  coming  of  the  Babylonian 
to  carry  the  chosen  People  into  captivity  if  they  did 
not  repent.  The  truth  for  the  exiles  in  Babylon  was 
the  return  and  great  restoration,  the  rebuilding  of 
the  temple,  and  the  advent  of  ^Messiah.  The  object 
of  Christian  faith  is  the  person  and  work  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  image  of  the  invisible  God  and  the 
incarnation  of  His  will  to  save  the  world. 

It  has  become  a  commonplace  to  say  that  there 
has  been  a  progress  in  divine  revelation.  The  his- 
tory of  man,  like  the  globe  he  inhabits,  is  ever 
changing,  passing  into  new  phases,  revolving  under 
different  skies.  The  time  has  been  when  nature,  the 
pomp  and  glorv'  of  earth  and  sk}',  were  prettv'  much 
all  the  Bible  man  had.  The  father  of  the  family, 
or  the  head  of  the  clan,  was  priest,  judge,  lawgiver, 
executioner,  all  functions  concentred  in  one:  but  as 
centuries  rolled  by  new  interpretations  of  societ}-, 
of  personal  rights  and  moral  obligation,  were 
broached,  and  the  posture  of  the  collective  mind 
towards  perennial  problems  perceptibly  shifted.  In 
this  way  it  came  about  that  geographical  discovery 
and  astronomical  discovery  helped  to  modify  reli- 
gious conceptions;  the  investigations  of  science  along 
all  lines  have  cast  light  both  upon  man  and  the  earth. 
The  universe  has  grown  larger,  life  more  real  and 
solemn,   knowledge  more  exact;    nor  has  religion 


lo  THE    INVISIBLE    THINGS 

materially  suffered  in  the  process  of  centuries.  It 
is  as  ever  the  final,  awful,  anonymous  mystery,  on 
whose  threshold  man  uncovers  the  head  and  loosens 
the  shoes  from  his  feet. 

But  I  remark  further  that  St.  Paul's  sentence,  in 
the  text,  opens  an  interesting  question  concerning 
those  to  whom  the  highest  truths  about  God  and  His 
requirements  have  not  been  delivered.  He  virtually 
says  that  they  could  collect  all  they  needed  from  such 
facts  and  information  as  they  had.  This  is  a  topic 
around  which  earnest  thought  has  gathered  and 
which  has  exercised  many  minds  with  anxiety.  Men 
have  looked  abroad  over  the  earth  and  backward 
into  the  morning  of  the  world  and  have  seen  the 
countless  human  generations  flowing  on  like  a  broad 
river,  swollen  by  tributaries  from  every  clime,  ever 
widening  and  moving  forvvard  with  resistless  cur- 
rent, a  rushing  stream  that  no  barrier  could  dam, 
and  the  question  has  arisen,  Whither  do  they  tend? 
into  what  gulf  do  they  all  empty  ?  Imagination  reels  ; 
arithmetic  has  no  figures  wherewith  to  count ;  human 
governments  have  made  no  census  of  the  teeming, 
swarming,  struggling  populations  that  have  marched 
across  this  planet  and  dropped  over  the  edge  into 
the  dark  unknown.  Before  man  began  to  take  ac- 
count of  himself,  to  preserve  records  or  write  chron- 
icles or  doomsday  books,  before  civil  life  began  and 
the  historic  empires  arose  that  now"  only  flicker  on 
the  misty  verge  of  time,  before  Assyria  or  Egypt 


THE    INVISIBLE    THINGS  ii 

headed  the  march  of  empire  down  the  world,  before 
the  city-states  of  antiquity  flourished  and  civiHzation, 
even  in  a  rude,  barbaric  form,  set  in,  what  a  muhitu- 
dinous  sea  of  human  Hfe  heaved  and  glanced  and 
washed  across  the  earth !  What  receptacle  of  spirit 
is  wide  and  deep  enough  to  hold  it  all?  What 
has  become  of  all  the  intellect,  moral  sentiment,  as- 
piration, and  hope  once  incarnate  in  man?  What 
shall  we  think  or  say  concerning  the  peoples  and 
nations  to  whom  God  has  not  revealed  Himself,  save 
in  a  fragmentary,  ambiguous  manner?  Perhaps 
Paul  suggests  an  answer  to  this  curious  incjuiry — ■ 
the  invisible  things  are  understood  by  the  things  that 
are  made.  And  Peter  puts  it  in  this  way,  "  in  every 
nation  whoso  feareth  God  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness is  accepted  of  Him."  And  Jesus  said,  "  the 
servant  that  knew  not  and  did  things  worthy  of 
stripes,  shall  be  beaten  with  few."  From  which 
premises  it  is  inferable  that  man  has  always  had 
enough  saving  knowledge,  did  he  only  use  his  talent, 
his  opportunity,  the  conditions  of  his  life  aright. 
The  universal  gravitation  toward  sin  and  moral 
transgression,  which  is  his  bad  inheritance,  does  not 
constitute  guilt  in  its  supreme  definition;  but  the 
condemnation  is  this,  that  men  do  not  read,  mark, 
and  interpret  the  invisible  things  by  the  light  of  the 
visible,  but  become  vain  in  their  imaginations  and 
vile  in  their  conduct. 

This  is  guilt,  that  light  is  come  into  the  world,  and 


12  THE    INVISIBLE    THINGS 

has  always  been  here  in  sufficient  degree,  but  men 
have  loved  darkness  rather  than  light.  Original  sin, 
fleshly  appetites,  that  which  comes  by  birth,  by 
heredity,  by  way  of  natural  consequence,  without 
one's  assent  or  dissent,  —  all  this,  it  is  reasonable  to 
believe,  unfortunate  as  it  is,  is  not  the  most  serious 
count,  the  gravamen  of  the  case.  Your  accountabil- 
ity sets  in  when  you  make  a  deliberate  and  wilful 
choice,  that  is  rebuked  by  the  visible  things,  by  what 
you  ought  to  know  and  might  know  if  you  tried. 
This  has  always  left  men  without  excuse,  and 
does  so  now  as  much  as  ever  it  did.  We  can- 
not forestall  our  natural  instincts  and  appetites,  — 
they  are  nominated  in  the  bond,  they  are  in  the 
charter,  they  belong  to  humanity.  We  need  not  be 
ashamed  that  we  are  men;  we  did  not  bring  our- 
selves here  or  make  ourselves  what  we  find  to  be 
our  nature;  nobody  need  be  sorry  because  he  gets 
hungry  or  thirsty  or  sleepy,  or  because  he  is  gre- 
garious and  seeks  his  kind,  or  because  he  desires 
property,  esteem,  good  reputation,  power,  superior- 
ity, or  agreeable  sensations.  All  this  is  part  of  the 
outfit  of  the  natural  man.  And  while  it  is  true  that 
out  of  these  eggs  most  of  the  overt  transgression 
that  runs  and  riots  through  the  earth  is  hatched,  yet 
in  themselves  these  appetencies  or  propensions  can- 
not be  held  blameworthy.  Guilt  sets  in  when  we 
abuse  our  gifts  of  nature  and  pervert  our  powers 
and  run  greedily  to  excess,  when  we  parley  with 


THE    INVISIBLE    THINGS  13 

corrupt  temptation  and  court  moral  danger  and  sin 
against  light  and  the  proper  dignity  of  man.  The 
dramatically  critical  moment  is  when  we  come  to 
use  ourselves,  to  play  out  our  native  powers  upon 
the  materials  and  objects  of  desire  furnished,  to 
choose  among  alternatives.  The  inherent  evil  in 
human  nature  may,  then,  easily  assert  itself  and  de- 
mand satisfaction,  and  take  its  own  way,  at  the  cost 
of  great  ruling  ideas  and  imperatives. 

And  this  is  pretty  much  all  we  can  say  about  sin- 
ful man  in  all  his  generations.  This,  at  any  rate, 
appears  to  be  Paul's  thought  in  this  context,  —  that 
men  stand  or  fall  by  the  use  they  make  of  their  knowl- 
edge, their  opportunity,  by  the  known  truth  or  duty 
to  which  they  are  faithful  or  false.  The  Bible  sup- 
plies great  principles,  but  does  not  teach  minutely 
concerning  matters  of  curious  speculation.  It  says 
that  God  has  always  been  in  the  world ;  that  He  has 
always  been  accessible;  that  His  ear  has  ever  been 
open  to  the  humble  and  contrite;  that  He  has 
spoken  more  or  less  articulately  to  every  passing 
generation ;  that  every  age  has  had  some  saving  salt, 
some  precious  imperishable  truth,  some  light,  were  it 
only  a  winking  taper,  by  heeding  which  men  might 
find  their  way  through  darkness  and  doubt  toward 
the  vision  and  enjoyment  of  God;  and  that  every 
sinner  is  without  excuse  up  to  the  line  of  his  knowl- 
edge and  ability.  This  is  enough  to  know.  We  need 
not  fly  abroad  into  the  future.     We  are  not  called 


14  THE    INVISIBLE   THINGS 

upon  to  settle  the  destinies  of  mankind  or  who  or 
how  many  shall  be  eternally  saved.  We  can  afford 
to  leave  the  wide  future  as  it  stands,  dim,  cloudy, 
inorganic,  an  untrodden  continent,  an  unknown  shore 
wrapped  in  fog.  We  cannot  define  eternity  by  rules 
of  syntax  or  long  words  taken  from  a  lexicon.  We 
are  not  concerned  to  settle  the  fate  of  the  heathen. 
Only  let  us  learn  this,  that  a  man  who  wanders 
through  this  world  without  getting  a  glimpse  of  God 
is  without  excuse.  There  is  surely  enough  here,  and 
always  has  been,  to  induce  reflection  and  to  counsel 
rectitude  of  life.  There  are  symbols  of  divine  reality 
and  manifestations  of  God  in  the  course  and  consti- 
tution of  nature  and  in  the  collective  experience  of 
the  race.  He  must  be  a  dull  clod  to  whom  there  is 
nothing  significant,  sacred,  or  prophetic  in  life,  no 
God  in  history,  or  in  this  great  cosmic  procession  of 
things  and  events  that  wheels  forever  before  the  eye 
of  man.  Surely  invisible  things  shine  through  the 
thin  rinds  of  the  visible,  the  pulsations  of  a  higher 
life  throb  through  the  framework  of  this  present 
world. 

And  the  serious  question  for  every  one  is,  whether 
he  has  found  God  in  the  sensible,  empirical  facts  of 
his  experience.  For  this  is  our  great  business 
here,  to  find  God  and  to  enter  into  His  peace 
and  joy.  This  is  the  chief  end  of  man.  Are  you 
faithful,  then,  to  such  light  as  you  have?  Do 
you  obey  the  Gospel  delivered  to  you  and  your  time  ? 


THE    INVISIBLE    THINGS  15 

Do  you  covet  the  best  gifts?  Do  you  aspire  after 
the  spirituahty  of  Christ  and  seek  His  companion- 
ship? Do  you  look  for  God  in  all  the  events  of 
life,  and  make  visible  things  a  ladder  leading  aloft 
to  the  invisible  ? 


POSTHUMOUS   INFLUENCE 

Then  said  the  'woman,  whom  shall  I  bring  up  unto  thee  ? 
And  he  said,  Bring  me  up  Samuel,  —  I  Samuel  xxviii.  ii. 

THE  scene  reported  in  the  context  is  neces- 
sarily dark  because  it  relates  to  a  sphere  be- 
yond our  experience  and  inaccessible  to  our 
senses.  In  this  respect  it  resembles  the  parable  con- 
cerning Dives  and  Lazarus  in  the  New  Testament. 
Neither  of  them  divulge  information  about  the  un- 
seen world  sufficiently  precise  and  circumstantial  to 
satisfy  human  curiosity ;  nor  is  there  a  consensus  of 
opinion  in  regard  to  the  exact  extent  of  inference 
deducible  from  the  premises.  Both  scenes  set  up 
most  vividly  the  machinery  of  post-mortem  existence, 
but  they  bristle  with  difficulties  of  interpretation  and 
indeed  baffle  an  entirely  satisfactory  one. 

In  the  matter  of  the  Old  Testament  story  the  facts 
are  these :  King  Saul  —  the  first  monarch  of  Israel 
—  found  himself  in  desperate  straits,  hemmed  in  by 
the  strategy  of  the  Philistines,  who  had  long  been 
implacable  enemies  of  the  Hebrew  people  and  had 
scored  several  victories  over  them.  Upon  this  occa- 
sion they  had  mobilized  their  forces  and  assembled 
in  immense  numbers  to  fight  against  him  and  to 
break  his  power  and  overthrow  his  kingdom.     Saul 


POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE  17 

had  selected  his  ground  on  Mt.  Gilboa  intending  to 
engage  and,  if  possible,  to  rout  them.  But  perceiv- 
ing their  numbers,  strength,  and  resolution,  he  began 
to  doubt  the  issue.  In  order  to  quiet  his  fears  and 
end  his  suspense  he  inquired  of  Jehovah  by  the 
usual  methods  of  oracle  and  augury,  for  at  that  date 
the  ordinances  of  religion  were  closely  interwoven 
with  State  policy  and  public  questions  —  indeed  the 
two  were  almost  identical.  The  Hebrew  Common- 
wealth had  been  a  theocracy,  and  it  was  the  custom, 
not  alone  of  the  Hebrews  but  of  all  the  peoples, 
through  appointed  leaders  and  proper  officials,  to 
consult  their  Deity  upon  the  eve  of  critical  move- 
ments. We  read  that  Alexander  of  Macedon,  before 
entering  on  his  campaigns,  visited  the  Pythian  priest- 
ess and  sought  from  her  some  indication  of  his 
career.  The  ancient  world  was  (in  its  way)  a  re- 
ligious world ;  certainly  laid  stress  on  visions,  omens, 
appearances.  The  augur,  the  seer,  the  priest,  were 
busy  and  influential  men,  the  earth  was  full  of  altars, 
images,  temples,  groves,  oracles,  however  little  true 
religion  there  may  have  been.  King  Saul,  like 
most  men,  was  a  believer  in  supernaturalism,  — 
at  least,  in  invisible  powers  and  influences.  Hence, 
when  he  came  into  trouble  and  perplexity  and  was 
at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do,  it  was  his  natural  re- 
course and  most  hopeful  plan  to  consult  the  God  of 
Sinai  —  the  tutelary  God  of  Israel  —  who  had  de- 
clared His  name  and  power  to  them  through  Moses. 


i8  POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE 

But  it  appears  that  in  his  present  dilemma  Saul 
got  no  satisfaction  in  this  way.  The  customary 
oracles  were  dumb ;  no  vivid  dream  came  to  flash  its 
meaning  upon  him ;  no  articulate  voice  accosted  him 
out  of  the  darkness;  no  local  prophet  had  any  ma- 
terial message  to  deliver.  The  great  Samuel  was 
dead,  and  the  unhappy  king  had  no  adviser  of  equal 
judgment  and  probity  upon  whom  he  could  rely  or 
to  whom  he  could  go  for  wise  counsel  and  relief. 
What  was  he  to  do  ?  Around  him  lay  the  land  black 
with  swarming  Philistines :  their  hum  was  in  the  air, 
their  spears  waved  like  a  forest  swayed  by  the  wind, 
their  numbers  and  ferocity  appalled  him,  he  feared 
to  be  outgeneralled  and  overwhelmed;  he  was  in- 
deed in  an  evil  plight,  and  realized  the  fact.  More- 
over, there  was  no  time  to  be  lost.  Should  he 
retreat  or  advance?  Should  he  temporize  and  play 
with  his  enemy,  or  should  he  move  against  him  with 
vigor  and  despatch  and,  if  possible,  rout  him  by  a 
sudden  onslaught?  Saul  did  not  know  what  to  do, 
could  not  decide  which  course  promised  the  best 
result ;  he  could  get  no  mutter,  no  sign  or  hint  from 
the  upper,  unseen  powers,  and  in  default  of  this  — 
being  suspicious,  superstitious,  gloomy,  apprehensive 
of  evil  —  he  hesitated  to  take  a  decisive  step ;  indeed 
his  religious  feeling  forbade  it ;  he  felt  that  he  must 
get  light  from  some  quarter.  And  so,  in  his  per- 
plexity, he  commissioned  his  body-servant  to  inquire 
for  a  professional  expert  reputed  to  have  familiar- 


POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE  19 

ity  with  spiritual  agents  and  invisible  beings.  The 
upshot  of  this  was,  that  King  Saul  was  recommended 
to  the  weird  woman  of  Endor.  The  scene  depicted 
in  the  record  is  one  of  strange  interest ;  it  is  power- 
fully drawn,  highly  dramatic,  gloomy,  wild,  full  of 
awe  and  mystery.  In  these  elements  and  features  it 
yields  to  no  other  in  the  Bible.  One  seems  to  see 
this  gaunt,  solitary  woman,  hidden  away  from  the 
habitations  of  men,  brewing  her  incantations,  mum- 
bling her  magical  phrases,  fingering  her  amulets  and 
charms,  collecting  herbs  and  arranging  the  imple- 
ments of  her  craft,  pursuing  her  illicit  trade  prohib- 
ited by  Moses,  "  Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to 
live,  thou  shalt  stone  a  wizard  with  stones."  There 
she  dwelt,  near  Endor,  in  some  cave  or  fastness, 
driven  out  from  human  society,  surrounded  by  the 
machinery  of  her  dark  art  and  devil-craft,  and  so 
subsisting  upon  whatever  windfall  of  fortune  might 
come  her  way:  a  masculine,  lonely,  intrepid  woman 
was  she  —  living  and  moving  in  the  spirit-world. 
Unto  her  the  disquieted  and  feverish  king,  full  of 
vague  forebodings  and  tremors,  bent  his  way  on 
the  edge  of  battle.  It  seems  probable  that  God, 
angels,  the  whole  economy  of  the  invisible  realm, 
stood  out  before  the  imagination  of  men,  in  elder 
ages,  with  a  distinct  outline,  with  a  boldness  and 
vividness  that  has  since  faded  and  shrunken.  They 
seemed,  upon  occasion,  to  feel  the  impact  of  the 
higher  upon  this  terrestrial  sphere;    they  felt  the 


20  POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE 

jolt,  the  shock.  To-day  the  world,  under  scientific 
training-  and  the  experimental  method,  insists  more 
upon  the  moral  element  and  practical  teaching  ex- 
tant and  afloat,  and  is  rather  careless  of  the  outer 
shell  and  wrapper  of  a  truth  or  the  vehicle  by  which 
it  is  conveyed.  There  is  no  less  hunger  and  thirst 
after  radical  certainties  now  than  then,  only  the  how, 
the  mode,  the  circumstances,  and  concomitants  we 
hesitate  to  expound.  How  the  human  soul  is  super- 
naturally  influenced;  how  the  will  is  moved  and 
slowly  fashioned;  how  God  and  angels  exist;  how 
heavens  and  hells  are  constituted;  what  is  inspira- 
tion ;  what  is  the  shape  of  moral  evil,  its  habitation, 
its  origin,  its  imps ;  is  it  a  malign  influence  or  efflu- 
ence or  is  it  embodied  in  a  person ;  how  did  it  enter 
the  world  and  how  much  mischief  will  it  do  and  when 
will  it  be  expelled,  —  concerning  such  obscure  mat- 
ters men  are  inclined  to  be  silent,  whereas  formerly 
they  spoke.  They  now  feel  that  at  the  heart  of  the 
universe  dwells  a  mystery  not  soluble  at  the  present 
stage  of  human  knowledge. 

But  there  are  practical  inferences  resulting-  from 
this  reported  interview  between  Samuel  and  Saul. 
One  of  these  is  obviously  this :  that  in  a  world  like 
ours  one  is  likely  to  arrive  at  junctures  of  experi- 
ence, hours  of  perplexity  and  crisis,  when  he  feels 
the  need  of  a  sounder  judgment,  a  larger  knowledge, 
and  a  finer  wisdom  than  his  own.  Every  one  who 
has  journeyed  far  into  life  understands  what  it  is  to 


POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE  21 

be  tossed  by  painful  doubts,  to  be  impaled  upon  a 
dilemma,  to  vibrate  to  and  fro  between  opposing 
alternatives  and  neutralizing  arguments,  to  be  tor- 
mented by  mental  perplexity:  no  one  but  knows 
what  this  means  and  what  anxiety  and  suffering  it 
can  produce.  We  often  fall  into  suspension  of  judg- 
ment and  an  inability  to  determine  the  better  course. 
And  it  is  always  an  unpleasant  experience ;  may  even 
become  intolerable  if  prolonged.  At  such  troubled 
times  the  natural  refuge  and  spontaneous  movement 
of  the  mind  is  to  fly  to  the  cover  of  a  riper  wisdom 
and  experience,  the  tact,  intuition,  judgment  of  a 
larger  mind,  or  at  least  of  one  who  commands  con- 
fidence and  who  seems  to  know  and  to  be  able  to 
point  the  way  out.  This,  I  say,  is  the  natural  refuge 
of  those  who  doubt  and  are  sorely  perplexed,  the 
advice  of  one  who  has  already  traversed  similar 
tracts,  or  who  is  able  to  look  upon  the  situation 
judiciously  and  dispassionately  and  deal  with  it  upon 
sound  general  principles.  He  is  fortunate  who  can 
carry  an  urgent  question  of  propriety,  expediency, 
or  duty  to  one  whose  character  and  ability  invite 
confidence,  who  has  power  to  look  upon  the  problem 
from  all  sides  and  in  all  its  relations  and  probable 
consequences,  and  to  pronounce  a  wise  sentence  con- 
cerning it.  For  any  trifling  obliquity  may  deflect 
one's  vision  and  vitiate  his  judgment,  such  as  a  dash 
of  prejudice,  a  grain  of  indecision,  a  little  spite  or 
envy,  too  much  faith  in  human  nature  or  too  little, 


22  POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE 

any  predominance  of  self-interest,  an  overplus  of 
caution  or  timidity,  or  a  turn  for  adventure  and  rash 
speculation,  a  visionary,  sanguine  temper,  too  hope- 
ful and  buoyant,  or  a  melancholy  temper  that  looks 
too  much  upon  the  dark  side  of  things,  a  disposition 
too  stern  or  else  too  soft  and  pliable:  any  one  of 
many  modifications  may  easily  suffice  to  spoil  a  per- 
son, as  an  adviser,  a  counsellor  in  difficult  or  dan- 
gerous passes.  One's  ruling  passion  or  dominant 
trait  —  whatever  it  be  —  is  always  likely  to  rule  the 
hour  and  take  the  field  and  decide  a  case,  according  to 
its  bias.  Hence  ordinarily  you  must  leave  a  margin 
and  make  allowance  for  the  play  of  a  person's  idio- 
syncrasy and  the  turn  of  his  mind.  While  all  this 
seems  true,  and  although  there  are  perils  besetting 
the  intercourse  of  minds  and  tending  to  discount  the 
benefit  any  one  may  derive  from  this  source,  never- 
theless man  has  been  set  in  society,  among  other  ends, 
for  this  also,  that  he  may  learn  from  his  fellows  by 
contact  and  attrition,  and  so  get  access  to  the  col- 
lective experience  of  the  world.  In  this  way  ideas 
and  inventions  multiply,  hints  and  suggestions  arise, 
and  life  grows  richer.  The  world  is  a  vast  loan 
market;  every  one  has  something  to  impart  and 
every  one  wants  something  which  some  other  has; 
it  is  give  and  take  all  around  the  circle.  Not  only 
in  regard  to  the  products  and  staples  of  life,  but 
in  the  sphere  of  ideas,  social  betterments,  moral 
movements,  and  the  application  of  great  principles 


POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE  23 

in  practice,  we  are  beholden  to  each  other  and 
the  Hving  owe  a  debt  to  the  dead.  Man  leans  hard 
upon  his  fellow.  No  one  is  wiser  than  all.  No  one 
life  is  as  rich  as  all  life.  No  one's  experience  is  as 
broad  and  deep  as  universal  experience.  We  need 
to  collate  our  knowledge  with  that  of  others  and  to 
enlarge  it  by  annexing  their  acquirements.  We  need 
to  learn  from  others  what  they  have  found  to  be 
true  and  trustworthy  in  their  particular  line.  This 
is  one  of  the  huge  driving  wheels  of  society.  And 
so  here,  in  this  record,  and  away  back  in  the  Hebrew 
twilight,  behold  kingly  Saul  invoking  this  familiar 
principle,  taking  the  golden  crown  from  his  head, 
laying  aside  his  potent  sceptre,  disguising  himself, 
shifting  his  apparel,  changing  his  voice  in  order  that 
he  may  learn  from  the  weird  woman  of  Endor  the 
secret  of  his  destiny,  the  fate  of  his  throne,  the  issue 
of  the  impending  battle  with  the  Philistine  host.  No 
man  liveth  to  himself  —  how  true  that  is!  No  one 
is  quite  sufficient  for  life,  for  its  possible  contingen- 
cies, its  sudden  surprises,  its  ups  and  downs,  its 
promotions  and  reverses,  its  successes  and  failures, 
its  toils  and  tragedies,  and  all  its  wide  upsetting  incal- 
culable changes.  Man  cannot  foresee  these  or  pro- 
vide against  them ;  he  feels  consciously  weak,  anxious, 
uncertain ;  he  treads  upon  the  cooling  ashes  of  dying 
fires ;  he  builds  his  high-storied  structures  upon  the 
thin  crust  of  a  globe  within  which  a  sea  of  flame 
heaves  and  beats ;  he  launches  his  raft  and  sails  away 


24  POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE 

on  treacherous  deeps  and  under  a  changing  sky; 
he  walks  amid  paradox  and  contradiction ;  he  is  often 
weakest  where  he  thinks  himself  strong  and  strongest 
where  he  is  most  cautious  and  consciously  weak. 
He  is  a  frightened  creature,  who  stands  ever  in  need 
of  the  kindest  sympathy  and  best  advice  he  can  get. 
He  can  make  use  of  all  he  can  learn  either  from 
above  or  below,  from  God  or  man.  Whatever 
strength,  courage,  wisdom,  direction  may  come  to 
him  through  prayer  or  Providence  or  through  the 
channel  of  human  friendship  and  intercourse,  all  of 
it,  may  be  pertinent  and  find  a  place,  may  carry  a 
meaning  or  sound  an  alarm. 

Observe  further  that  the  capital  circumstance  in 
this  narrative  lies  here,  that  Saul  calls  for  Samuel. 
He  might  readily  have  called  for  others  who  were 
great  and  valorous  —  in  their  time :  the  Hebrew 
annals  were  rich  in  noble  reflective  characters.  Thus 
Saul  might  have  returned  to  the  fountain-head  of 
his  race  —  to  Abraham,  from  w'hose  loins  all  He- 
brewdom had  sprung;  him  the  king  might  have 
challenged  to  come  forth  from  the  land  of  shadows 
and  from  the  wide  kingdom  of  eternity.  There  was 
Moses  also,  the  lawgiver  of  Sinai  and  the  leader  of 
the  Exode.  Joshua  too,  the  valiant  captain  of  the 
invasion  and  settlement,  might  have  given  wise  coun- 
sel in  Saul's  perilous  exigency,  and  Gideon,  who 
smote  Amalek,  and  Samson,  w^ho  himself  had  known 
the  might  and  prowess  of  the  Philistines.    Any  one 


POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE  25 

of  these,  and  more  besides,  the  distracted  king  might 
have  called  into  consultation  as  individuals  emi- 
nently fit  to  resolve  his  doubts  or  quiet  his  anxiety. 
But  he  summons  none  of  them ;  he  leaves  them,  one 
and  all,  to  sleep  on,  undisturbed,  and  cries  to  the 
woman  of  Endor,  "  Bring  me  up  Samuel."  What 
does  it  mean?  It  means,  among  other  things,  that 
Saul  knew  Samuel,  —  his  worth,  the  genuineness  of 
the  man,  his  uprightness  and  downrightness,  his 
sterling  integrity,  his  moral  power  and  real  great- 
ness of  soul,  —  and  he  saw  that  within  the  whole 
range  of  his  recollection  he  could  not  call  out  of  the 
dusky  glimmer  of  a  departed  world  one  more  suitable 
for  his  purpose,  one  who  had  a  saner  understanding, 
a  clearer  vision,  a  better  heart,  or  more  varied  and 
larger  resources  for  the  solution  of  the  difficulty  in 
hand.  Yet  mark  well  this  fact,  that  they  were  very 
different  men  —  by  no  means  sympathetic  with  each 
other,  nor  conversant  with  the  same  class  of  sub- 
jects or  lines  of  thought.  The  one  was  a  prophet, 
a  priest,  a  great  executive,  a  judge,  a  man  dedi- 
cated to  God  from  his  birth,  and  who  sought  —  ac- 
cording to  his  light  —  to  lead  the  people  toward  a 
high  ethical  ideal,  toward  righteousness,  purity,  and 
obedience.  The  other  was  a  man  devoid  of  deep 
convictions,  a  man  of  shifty  policy,  and  moreover  of 
an  insane  temperament,  who  seemed,  at  seasons,  pos- 
sessed of  a  demon  of  malice  and  envy  and  dark  dis- 
content;   a  man  of  strong  passions  and  implacable 


26  POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE 

resentments,  proud,  capricious,  fitful,  arbitrary, 
oftentimes  unreasonable :  very  dissimilar  men  were 
Saul  and  Samuel,  none  more  so. 

Besides  this,  consider  also  that  their  personal  re- 
lations had  not  always  been  cordial,  but  a  little 
strained,  upon  occasion.  Samuel  had  spoken  plainly 
to  Saul  without  circumlocution ;  he  had  even  dared 
to  rebuke  him,  and  had  told  him  in  no  sugar-coated 
phrase  what  he  believed  to  be  the  tendency  and 
outcome  of  his  acts  and  courses.  Samuel  had  not 
spared  Saul's  feelings  during  his  lifetime,  or  winked 
at  his  weaknesses,  or  deferred  to  his  dignity  as 
God's  anointed.  He  had  freely  used  the  power  of 
rebuke,  —  a  terrible  weapon  with  a  sharp  edge  when 
wielded  by  one  who  knows  how,  and  who  has  the 
right  in  a  controversy.  Only  a  few,  here  and  there, 
can  handle  it  with  skill  and  address  and  so  as  to 
do  more  good  than  harm.  It  requires  supreme  tact, 
a  large  knowledge  of  human  nature,  generous  in- 
stincts, a  fine  moderation  coupled  with  a  firm  loyalty 
to  the  truth,  in  order  to  criticise  and  to  reprove, 
yet  leave  no  lasting  sting.  Above  all,  he  who 
attempts  such  a  thankless  office  must  himself  be 
quite  superior  to  the  infirmities  and  errors  upon 
which  he  animadverts  and  which  he  seeks  to  correct; 
he  should  always  command  the  confidence  and  es- 
teem of  the  person  he  tries  to  influence,  and  ought  to 
be  a  high,  unimpeachable  example  of  the  quality  or 
virtue  he  recommends;    otherwise  his  charge  will 


POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE  27 

recoil  upon  himself  and  call  down  upon  his  own 
head  the  proverb,  "  Physician,  heal  thyself."  It  is  a 
grave  function  and  a  perilous  business  to  constitute 
one's  self  the  censor  or  judge  of  another.  When 
Jesus  stood  up  in  Jerusalem  nineteen  hundred  years 
ago  and  hurled  his  invectives  against  the  hollow 
and  pompous  religionists  of  his  time,  "  Woe  unto 
you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites !  for  ye 
devour  widows'  houses,  and  for  a  pretence  make 
long  prayers.  Woe  unto  you,  for  ye  compass  sea 
and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,  and  when  he  is  made, 
ye  make  him  twofold  more  the  child  of  hell  than 
yourselves.  Ye  blind  guides  which  strain  at  a  gnat 
and  swallow  a  camel  "  —  when  Christ  arraigned 
the  contemporary  religion  in  such  trenchant,  tre- 
mendous language  as  this,  he  furnished  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  power  of  rebuke.  But  mark  well  that 
he  stood  high  above  the  cant  and  formalism  of  the 
men  and  the  system  he  indicted;  he  could  chal- 
lenge criticism ;  he  had  no  fear  that  the  blow  would 
recoil  upon  himself;  his  tongue  was  not  paralyzed; 
his  lip  was  not  sealed  by  a  consciousness  of  guilt: 
this  is  always  a  material  circumstance.  Lofty,  noble, 
unimpeachable  character  is  a  prime  prerequisite  for 
one  who  undertakes  to  deal,  in  a  private  or  public 
way,  with  the  follies,  infirmities,  and  sins  of  men. 

Now  when  Saul  called  for  Samuel,  I  take  it  as 
a  testimony  to  the  impressive  personality  and  moral 
grandeur  of  the  dead  prophet.    Notwithstanding  his 


28  POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE 

hard  speeches  and  stern  reproofs  and  the  unwelcome 
truths  he  had  uttered  in  the  king's  ear,  his  bold  de- 
nunciations, repeated  warnings,  titanic  blows,  poured 
from  time  to  time  upon  the  royal  head;  notwith- 
standing Samuel's  uncompromising  attitude  and  the 
inflexible  demands  he  made  in  the  interest  of  right- 
eousness and  the  moral  law,  —  it  is  still  noteworthy 
that  Saul,  in  the  crisis  of  his  fate,  can  think  of  no 
one  save  Samuel  whom  he  cares  to  see  or  to  consult. 
The  memory  of  that  faithful,  courageous,  magnifi- 
cent old  man  comes  back  upon  him  with  marvellous 
cogency;  and  he  cries  to  the  strange  woman  of 
Endor,  "  Bring  me  up  Samuel."  What  a  powerful 
picture !  Look  at  the  broken  and  haggard  king,  his 
cheek  blanched,  his  eye  a-glare,  his  frame  agitated, 
the  fiat  gone  forth  against  his  life,  the  underpinning 
of  his  throne  ready  to  give  way,  all  things  nodding 
to  downfall  and  the  final  crash.  And  whom  will  he 
see,  with  whom  will  he  advise?  Hearken,  he  calls 
for  Samuel :    "  Bring  me  up  Samuel." 

I  call  it  a  splendid  testimony  to  the  power  of 
goodness,  to  the  value  of  a  high  example,  to  the  in- 
extinguishable vitality  that  resides  in  great  ideas  and 
principles,  in  righteousness,  in  fidelity  and  moral 
courage.  A  perennial  fragrance  lingers  around  these 
things.  After  all  that  may  be  said,  men  and  women 
come  to  seasons  of  crisis  and  into  valleys  of  decision 
and  days  of  cloud  and  storm  when  they  instinctively 
feel  that  there  is  no  time  for  trifling.    Frivolity,  dis- 


POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE  29 

sipation,  scepticism,  the  fast  life,  the  conventional 
life  of  luxury,  self-indulgence,  indolence,  unproduc- 
tiveness,—  these  may  answer  for  their  time  and  seem 
to  satisfy  the  shallow  and  heedless  and  heartless,  but 
if  there  be  at  the  base  of  one's  nature  a  principle 
of  reflection,  a  strain  of  seriousness,  a  capacity  for 
God  and  religion,  he  will  surely  arrive  at  an  hour,  he 
will  cross  a  tract  of  unusual  experience,  he  will 
enter  some  dark  valley  or  front  some  frowning  diffi- 
culty or  terrible  danger,  when  above  all  other  things 
he  will  want  to  see  Samuel.  Many  a  man  who  has 
dozed  through  life,  or  who  has  reeled  through  it, 
or  who  has  squandered  or  perverted  it  to  base  uses, 
suddenly  feels  the  foundations  move  beneath  him; 
the  earth  begins  to  rock  and  the  skies  gather  black- 
ness; the  tramp  of  the  Philistine  is  heard,  and  he 
awakens  out  of  his  guilty  dream,  out  of  his  foolish, 
idle,  or  evil  life  to  get  a  grip  of  reality,  a  glimpse  of 
superlative  issues  and  of  the  chief  end  of  this  earthly 
existence ;  he  remembers  Samuel ;  he  remembers  his 
earliest  impressions,  his  godly  parentage,  the  sab- 
baths of  long  ago,  the  wholesome  restraints  under 
which  he  was  reared,  the  fine  wisdom,  admirable 
character,  noble  example,  the  solicitudes  and  ad- 
monitions of  some  who  then  stood  by  his  side  but 
who  have  long  since  vanished ;  he  remembers  when 
he  was  impressible  and  unsophisticated  and  when  his 
hands  were  full  of  opportunities  and  the  world  lay 
before  him  to  do  as  he  listed.     There  are  many,  I 


30  POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE 

doubt  not,  who  would  confess  to  some  such  feehng 
as  this.  They  have  travehed  far  and  wide  and  seen 
much;  they  have  made  many  mistakes  and  scored 
a  few  successes;  they  have  lost  much  of  the  power 
of  old  convictions  and  teachings;  they  have  been 
considerably  demoralized,  have  lost  interest  in  some 
of  the  doctrines  and  practices  in  which  they  were 
nurtured,  and  are  now  far  on  the  journey  of  life; 
their  day  is  setting,  and  it  has  not  been  a  very  prof- 
itable one.  Nevertheless  enough  moral  perception 
is  left  unspoiled  within  them  to  see  that  the  ideals 
and  traditions  in  which  they  were  trained  and  which 
they  were  taught  to  revere  were  the  sound  rules,  were 
indeed  the  true  light  and  the  safe  leading.  The 
experience  of  life  and  a  long  observation  has  taught 
them  that  the  Law  of  God,  the  Gospel,  the  impera- 
tives of  a  quick  and  correct  conscience  point  true, 
are  not  fluctuating,  fallible  standards,  but  fixed  stars 
of  the  first  magnitude,  and  that  whosoever  dishonors 
and  disobeys  them  eventually  suffers  loss.  I  say  there 
is  an  imperishable  vitality  in  goodness,  in  great  ex- 
amples, in  a  fine  consistency,  in  a  holy  life.  Other 
things  live  their  day  and  serve  their  purpose,  and 
satisfy  for  their  time,  but  are  not  available  for  rare 
and  critical  occasions,  —  cannot  be  quoted,  cannot 
be  generalized,  cannot  be  made  so  easily  into  a  uni- 
versal copy.  We  cannot  fall  back  upon  the  conven- 
tions and  customs  and  rules  of  society  in  perplexity, 
in  distress,  under  the  arrest  of  rude  and  unexpected 


POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE  31 

events,  in  nights  of  sorrow,  in  the  presence  of  pain- 
ful doubt,  in  serious  moods,  and  when  ordinary 
resources  and  appliances  fail.  The  jolly  companion, 
the  man  of  the  world,  the  frivolous,  the  careless, 
the  hollow,  the  artificial,  the  vain,  —  all  these  are  of 
small  account  when  the  business  grows  serious  and 
the  storm  is  on,  and  the  night  wind  high  and  hoarse, 
and  the  clouds  are  driving  low,  and  one  is  drifting 
toward  the  breakers.  Saul  does  not  invoke  any  such 
help  on  the  edge  of  perilous  battle  and  in  the  shadow 
of  death.  He  calls  for  Samuel.  He  calls  for  so- 
briety, for  wisdom,  for  fidelity,  for  religious  faith. 

Looking  out  in  an  honest  hour  upon  the  con- 
stitution of  things,  we  plainly  see  that  a  dense 
mystery  penetrates  and  overhangs  it,  that  we  steer 
through  a  fog,  that  in  the  long  account  the  Sam- 
uels are  the  best  pilots  and  can  give  the  wisest 
direction.  They  who  live  by  the  Unseen,  the  prayer- 
ful, the  vigilant,  the  spiritual,  —  these  are  the  char- 
acters you  require  in  the  high  places  of  the  field  and 
in  critical  periods.  Verily  there  are  seasons  when 
the  soul  craves  religion,  —  a  good  and  comfortable 
hope,  some  high  argument,  a  transcendental  truth, 
a  great  conviction  that  shall  steady  one,  a  voice  from 
heaven,  a  glimpse  of  the  sea  of  glass  and  the  throne 
of  God.  This  is  really  what  every  one  wants  when 
he  stands  where  Saul  stood,  in  the  thick  of  life's 
battle  and  amid  its  slings  and  arrows  and  disas- 
ters.   I  call  this  mysterious  tale  of  the  Hebrew  Bible 


32  POSTHUMOUS    INFLUENCE 

a  magnificent  testimony  to  the  vitality  and  power 
of  a  holy  life.  Whatever  was  actually  transacted  is 
not  altogether  clear.  That  the  art  of  this  woman 
of  Endor  actually  called  up  the  great  Samuel  from 
the  dead  will  hardly  be  generally  accepted  at  this 
time  of  day ;  but  whether  or  not  matters  little  to  my 
argument.  The  practical  point  is  that  Saul  could 
think  of  no  one  but  Samuel  whom  he  cared  to  see 
and  consult.  Man's  sojourn  on  earth  is  not  a  chase 
over  green,  sunlit  meadows ;  on  the  contrary,  it  car- 
ries grave  elements,  raises  serious  questions,  is  beset 
with  immense  doubts,  involves  possible  consequences 
of  the  first  importance,  abounds  in  situations  where 
one  has  need  to  pause  before  he  casts  the  die.  We 
who  have  to  live  and  who  have  to  die  require  all 
the  lights  and  helps  and  finger-posts  set  up  in  this 
dim  world  to  instruct  and  direct  us.  Nature,  reve- 
lation, prophecy,  miracle,  precept,  example,  none 
of  them  can  come  amiss ;  the  highest  motives, 
the  finest  inspirations,  the  largest  encouragements, 
we  need  them  all  to  save  us.  Have  you  any  hold 
upon  spiritual  truths  ?  Have  you  any  sympathy  with 
religious  restraints  and  with  good  men?  Can  you 
say  with  Balaam,  "  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the 
righteous  " ;  can  you  say  with  Saul,  "  Bring  me  up 
Samuel  "  ?  Dwelling  in  these  frail  tabernacles  of 
flesh,  what  is  your  refuge  and  strength  ?  More  than 
this,  are  you  living  in  a  manner  fit  to  survive  in  the 
memories  of  men?     Saul  called  for   Samuel,   and 


POSTHU^IOUS    INFLUENCE  33 

when  yonr  day  is  set,  and  mine,  is  it  likely  that  any 
one  will  think  of  us,  will  recall  our  fidelity,  our  pa- 
tience, our  humility,  our  labors  and  sacrifices,  and 
the  general  tenor  of  our  lives  ?  Shall  any  one  speak- 
ing of  you  or  of  me  say,  "  Bring  him  back ;  I  would 
fain  see  him  again ;  I  want  his  counsel,  the  inspira- 
tion of  his  presence,  his  sympathy,  his  prayers  "  ? 
Verily  this  was  a  splendid  tribute  to  the  essential 
greatness  of  Samuel  that  Saul  called  him  from  the 
dead. 


THE   BLESSING   OF   THE    PURE   IN 
HEART 

Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart :  for  they  shall  see   God.  — 
Matthew  v.  8. 

IF  there  be  any  primacy  among  the  Beatitudes, 
this  one  is  the  prince.  It  goes  to  the  root  of 
the  matter  and  predicts  the  finest  possibihties 
for  the  soul.  To  modern  Christendom  Christ's 
teachings  sound  hke  old  familiarities,  but  to  those 
who  listened  to  them  falling  fresh  and  eager  from 
His  heart,  they  were  absolutely  original.  His  words 
are  terse,  tense,  powerful ;  have  founded  schools 
and  determined  the  world-currents.  His  ideas  and 
expectations  have  given  rise  to  active  and  angry 
antagonisms  and  have  been  interpreted  in  all 
senses,  —  natural,  literal,  rationalistic,  as  well  as 
mystical  and  spiritual.  Some  sip  the  surface; 
others  dredge  deep  and  find  a  latency  of  meaning 
and  inexhaustible  suggestion  in  the  words  of  Christ. 
Nineteen  hundred  years  have  not  sufficed  to  put 
a  period  to  discussion,  to  establish  a  consensus 
of  opinion,  or  fully  to  divine  His  mind.  Men 
are  still  divided  about  Him  and  His  intentions. 
Only  this  is  clear,  that  underneath  his  words  run 
pulsing  arteries  and  a  vigorous  life  which,  now  and 


BLESSING    OF    PURE    IN    HEART     35 

again,  buds  forth  and  finds  emphasis  and  confirma- 
tion in  personal  experience  and  in  the  secular 
changes  of  the  world.  Beyond  doubt  His  earliest 
hearers  understood  enough  to  see  that  His  method 
was  unique  and  unlike  the  current  teachings  of  the 
day,  although  they  did  not  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
long  reaches  and  final  issue  of  His  doctrine.  Among 
other  things  they  could  not  fail  to  observe  that  an 
eminent  trait  of  His  discoursings  lay  in  this,  —  that 
He  drew  attention  from  the  ceremonial,  mechanical, 
ornamental,  the  outer  vehicle  and  sensuous  elements 
of  religion,  and  converged  interest  upon  ideas,  laws, 
grounds  of  action,  questions  of  character  and  duty, 
and  valid  conceptions  of  God  and  supersensible  reals. 
It  is  clear  that  Jesus  made  an  effort  to  teach  man 
some  fragment  of  absolute  truth,  and  put  him  at  a 
true  angle  of  vision  and  upon  a  coign  of  vantage. 
Herein  He  differed  diametrically  with  the  mode  then 
prevalent  in  Judea,  which  was  concerned  about 
trifles,  dealt  in  small  wares,  questions  of  manner  and 
form,  time  and  place,  quantity  and  quality,  more  or 
less,  matters  which  abut  upon  vacancy  and  do  not 
open  into  large  and  fruitful  inquiries.  For  under 
Pharisaic  influence  Moses  and  the  prophets  had 
been  emptied  of  all  moral  and  spiritual  content, 
and  for  their  teachings  had  been  substituted  a 
punctilious  round  of  ritual  observances,  which 
pious  drill  constituted  religion  according  to  the 
Pharisaic  casuistry.     Hence  the  startling  original- 


36     BLESSING    OF    PURE   IN    HEART 

ity  of  Jesus;  He  brought  the  mind  into  direct 
contact  and  confrontation  with  fact,  and  expounded 
divine  truths  by  homely  yet  luminous  illustra- 
tions taken  from  common  observation.  With  such 
a  miscellaneous  following  as  He  had  it  was  neces- 
sary to  reduce  the  abstract  to  the  concrete  and 
illuminate  that  which  was  dark  and  remote  by 
what  was  familiar.  His  sayings  are  so  deep,  vol- 
uminous, wide-ranging,  potential,  capable  of  such 
minute  applications,  that  He  probably  explicated 
them  more  at  length  than  His  biographers  report; 
inasmuch  as  John  states  that  the  earth  would  not 
hold  a  complete  record  of  Jesus'  career. 

The  Beatitudes  furnish  a  sample  of  the  breadth, 
universality,  and  germinal  property  of  His  teachings. 
Take  the  text  as  a  sample.  It  is  both  a  prophecy 
and  a  statement  of  actual  fact.  Its  line  goes  out  into 
the  great  beyond,  and  it  is  also  true  this  side  of  the 
sun  and  moon,  and  thus  illustrates  the  composite  and 
manifold  method  of  Christ.  Consider  first  the  more 
natural  and  practical  aspect  of  the  subject.  It  is 
equivalent  to  this,  that  in  the  sphere  of  religious  truth 
the  state  of  the  affections  and  the  bent  of  the  will 
is  more  material,  more  relevant  to  the  issue,  than  the 
force  and  operations  of  the  intellect.  If  you  take 
this  name  God  to  symbolize  all  that  can  be  known, 
at  present,  concerning  the  soul,  destiny,  and  man's 
relation  to  a  higher  life,  then  the  sense  of  the 
Beatitude  is  practically  this:    that  profound  convic- 


BLESSING    OF    PURE    IN    HEART     zy 

tion  and  a  comfortable  hope  touching  these  supreme 
interests  must  come  through  the  moral  nature,  the 
moral  affections;  the  imagination,  the  conscience 
must  be  kept  cleansed  and  translucent  so  that  spir- 
itual verities  will  not  be  obstructed  or  refracted 
in  passing  through.  It  is  not  so  vital  a  matter  to 
drill  the  intellect  as  to  hold  the  mind  clean,  pure, 
tremulously  sensitive,  instinctively  responsive  to  fine 
impressions.  So  then,  this  beatitude  prescribes  the 
regimen  by  which  men  may  acquire  reasonable  sat- 
isfaction concerning  a  class  of  truths  not  susceptible 
of  ordinary  verification.  For  it  cannot  be  insisted 
upon  overmuch  that  religious  knowledge  differs 
from  secular  and  such  as  pertains  to  the  uses  and 
ends  of  this  life,  chiefly  in  this,  that  it  requires  an- 
other organ  than  that  of  pure  intellect  in  order  to 
be  apprehended.  Of  course  one  needs  a  certain 
grade  of  intelligence.  This  is  always  material,  but 
it  must  be  refined  and  acuminated  by  spiritual  sym- 
pathy and  insight  that  shall  put  one  into  relation  and 
upon  an  equality  with  religious  ideas.  This  is  not 
an  urgent  necessity  as  regards  natural  knowledge. 
Naked  intellect  is  usually  enough.  Quickness 
of  apprehension,  the  power  of  attention,  indus- 
try, patience,  memory,  —  these  are  the  faculties 
involved  in  that  field.  Your  astronomer  may  be 
undevout;  this  does  not  disqualify  him  to  calculate 
an  eclipse,  compute  the  orbit  of  a  comet,  or  tell  how 
much  sodium,  magnesia,  and  iron  exist  in  the  sun's 


38     BLESSING   OF    PURE    IN    HEART 

atmosphere.  The  chemist  may  beHeve  that  the  uni- 
verse is  a  congregation  of  particles  that  have  co- 
hered by  chance,  without  intelhgent  direction;  his 
atheism  does  not  necessarily  interfere  with  his  dis- 
coveries in  the  realm  of  inorganic  bodies.  He  may 
be  both  chemist  and  atheist.  Similarly,  he  who 
studies  vital  relations,  biology,  may  be  a  clean-cut 
materialist  and  see  nothing  in  universal  life  that  can- 
not be  accounted  for  by  vibrations  of  matter.  So 
in  logic,  psychology^,  mechanics,  the  chief  prerequi- 
site is  that  kind  of  intellect  which  is  adapted  to 
the  particular  specialty.  The  conscience  is  not  de- 
cisively implicated  further  than  this,  that  one  must 
accurately  report  what  he  finds ;  he  must  be  truthful. 
But  the  moral  reason,  the  religious  emotions,  do 
not  enter  unavoidably  into  the  pursuit  of  natural 
knowledge. 

Here  lies  a  great  gulf  between  it  and  the  sphere 
of  supernatural  religion.  The  one  involves  an  in- 
tellectual process  and  pauses  there;  the  other,  while 
it  assumes  intelligence,  without  which  there  can 
be  no  accountability,  takes  up  and  carries  along 
with  this,  disposition,  character,  moral  habits,  and 
spiritual  tastes. 

It  is  not  infrequently  alleged  that  religious  doc- 
trines must  submit  themselves  to  the  same  tests  with 
others  and  rest  content  to  be  considered  in  the  dry 
light  of  intellect  without  prepossession  or  preference. 
But  scrutinize  this  proposition,  and  directly  it  appears 


BLESSING    OF    PURE    IN    HEART     39 

impossible,  it  overlooks  the  stringent  conditions  of 
the  case.  Because  religion,  as  a  genuine  experience, 
founds  upon  certain  great  affections  and  needs  of 
the  human  soul.  It  implies  a  class  of  hungers,  hopes, 
solicitudes.  It  is  not  a  demonstration  in  Euclid. 
It  is  not  a  syllogism  of  Aristotle.  It  is  the  inward 
satisfaction  of  a  set  of  affections  with  their  cravings. 
To  tell  a  mortal  man  pilgrimizing  through  nature 
to  eternity  that  he  must  not  have  any  feeling  about 
religion,  any  care  whether  it  be  true  or  false,  that  he 
must  approach  it  with  cool  indifference,  keep  a  steady 
head  and  a  stiff  determination  to  admit  nothing 
that  is  not  intellectually  defensible  by  attorney-rules 
of  evidence,  —  all  this  ignores  the  real  conditions  of 
the  case.  Because  religion,  properly  considered,  is 
not  a  theorem  for  the  intellect;  it  is  a  vast,  divine, 
immeasurable,  unutterable  hope  to  be  discerned  by 
the  moral  instincts  and  embraced  by  the  affec- 
tions. So  that  if  one  is  tO'  get  any  due  apprehen- 
sion of  it  at  all,  this  must  come  through  feeling,  by 
the  force  of  a  certain  congeniality  for  it,  a  shrewd 
divination  upon  the  part  of  the  personal  soul  that 
here  is  the  authentic  answer  to  its  questionings, 
tumults,  outreachings,  presentiments,  and  a  balm  for 
its  hurt. 

The  natural  man  misconceives  religion ;  he  forgets 
Jesus'  dictum,  —  the  pure  in  heart  see  God.  We  go 
at  it  with  the  practical  reason,  with  our  table  of 
chances,  and  set  down  this  doctrine  as  unlikely,  that 


40     BLESSING    OF    PURE   IN    HEART 

fantastic,  another  impossible.  We  judge  it  all  in  a 
hard,  dry,  scientific  way  and  according  to  external 
probabilities,  reducing  it  to  a  sort  of  mathematical 
rule  of  three,  —  this  is  to  that  as  that  is  to  a 
third  term,  —  and  so  work  our  way  along  logically 
toward  what  are  called  evidences  of  religion,  dry  and 
pale,  sterile  and  unprofitable  when  we  have  got 
them ;  no  fire  there,  no  heat,  no  momentum ;  argu- 
mentatively  impregnable,  mayhap,  but  not  soul- 
satisfying,  and  because  there  is  absent  the  right 
instrument  of  insight,  the  right  attitude  of  mind, 
a  proper  state  of  the  will  and  affections,  and  a  cor- 
rect habit  of  life.  In  other  words,  there  is  a  moral 
preparation  proper  to  the  advent  of  religion  in 
the  soul.  Christendom  is  rife  with  unbelief  largely 
because  men  handle  religion  —  when  they  consider 
it  at  all  —  after  the  manner  of  a  captious  attorney 
or  a  severe  scientist.  They  cite  it  before  their  bar 
and  dismiss  it  as  untenable,  preposterous,  or  problem- 
atic; meanwhile  ignoring  the  material  fact,  that  a 
need,  a  void,  a  sense  of  spiritual  loneliness  and  des- 
titution, an  affection  of  the  soul,  is  a  pre-condition  to 
the  understanding  of  it.  You  cannot  treat  the 
Christian  religion  as  you  would  mathematics.  You 
cannot  interrogate  it  as  if  it  were  a  perjured,  per- 
verse witness.  It  declines  to  respond  to  that  treat- 
ment. "  The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  them  that 
fear  Him,  with  them  who  hope  in  His  mercy." 
What  can  the  intellect  do  with  the  idea  of  God,  His 


BLESSING    OF    PURE   IN    HEART     41 

eternity,  occupations,  attributes?  We  can  establish 
a  few  elements  of  a  definition,  but  it  is  a  dry  skel- 
eton and  creature  of  the  logical  understanding, 
largely  a  negative  conception.  God  is  not  this, 
is  not  that,  but  what  is  He?  Well,  God  is  a  spirit. 
But'  what  is  spirit?  In  order  to  a  fruit-bearing, 
remunerative  perception  of  the  Supreme,  one  needs 
to  come  into  relation  with  Him  by  prayer,  by  holy 
living,  by  the  heart-power.  To  know  God  I  want  an 
assurance  of  His  love  even  though  I  walk  in  dark- 
ness, and  this  does  not  enter  through  the  gate  of  in- 
tellect. It  is  a  feeling,  a  persuasion,  a  strong  desire, 
a  still,  small  voice,  an  inspiration,  an  aspiration.  We 
are  apprised  of  it  through  our  sensibility,  not  through 
reasoning.  Here  is  really  a  cardinal  consideration, 
that  notably  in  the  domain  of  religion  what  is  called 
feeling,  the  temper,  the  moral  condition  of  the  per- 
son, is  a  significant  symptom  and  most  potent  factor 
in  the  case  and  cannot  be  omitted  or  overlooked. 
There  is  an  appropriate  preparation  for  every  at- 
tainment and  vision  of  truth  to  whatever  depart- 
ment it  belongs.  Some  disposition  or  quality  is  im- 
plicated ;  sincerity,  intellectual  conscientiousness, 
humility,  industry,  perseverance,  some  such  trait 
accompanies  success  along  all  lines.  Lord  Bacon 
remarked  that  the  kingdom  of  nature  must  be  en- 
tered like  the  kingdom  of  grace,  by  little  children; 
that  is,  if  one  aspire  to  be  an  inductive  philos- 
opher, he  must  have  docility  and   take  cheerfully 


42     BLESSING   OF    PURE    IN    HEART 

what  facts  he  finds.  It  is  so  all  around  the  circle. 
Certain  moral  traits  enter  into  successful  achieve- 
ment, while  in  the  sphere  of  religious  ideas  and  ex- 
perience, feeling  touches  its  maximum  and  is  of  the 
very  essence  of  the  thing.  The  pure  in  heart,  alone, 
see  God,  even  in  this  world.  One  may  trample  on 
the  decalogue  and  yet  understand  political  economy, 
music,  and  medicine;  but  no  one  can  be  consciously 
false  to  any  great  commandment  and  still  hope  for 
a  moral  inspiration.  And  the  obvious  reason  is,  that 
in  the  things  of  this  world  success  depends  largely 
upon  natural  ability,  foresight,  and  active  qualities, 
whereas  in  the  sacred  matter  of  divine  illumina- 
tion Jesus  states  the  peculiarity  of  that  thus :  "  If 
a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  words,  and  my 
Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  and  make 
our  abode  with  him."  It  is  the  heart-purity  that 
opens  the  palace  of  spiritual  truth.  This  is  the 
inexorable  condition  upon  which  high  convictions 
are  suspended.  So  that  if  any  man  say  that  he 
has  no  belief  transcending  matter  and  sense,  that 
he  never  sees  God  in  any  shape,  in  any  event  of 
life,  that  no  apocalypse  ever  breaks  over  him,  no 
tidings  ever  come  to  his  private  soul,  such  an  one 
should  seriously  consider  whether  in  thought,  speech, 
or  behavior  he  systematically  demeans  himself  in  a 
way  to  discourage  the  ingress  of  such  a  revelation. 
Most  likely  he  makes  the  medium  turbid,  and  if  so, 
cannot  reasonably  wonder  why  the  true  light  does 


BLESSING   OF    PURE   IN    HEART     43 

not  break  through.  Probably  some  infirmity  of  char- 
acter, some  secret  sin  lurks  at  the  very  foundations 
of  him  and  blocks  the  entrance  of  a  religious  hope. 

I  have  read  that  the  Semitic  monuments  of  baked 
or  sun-dried  bricks,  built  by  Assyrians  and  ancient 
races,  have  been  observed  to  pulverize  and  pass  into 
a  stage  of  dilapidation,  attributed  to  the  weather  and 
its  alternations.  Closer  investigation,  however,  dis- 
covers another  cause.  A  powerful  microscope  finds 
nestling  in  these  powdering  structures  colonies  of 
microscopic  organisms,  germs  and  spores  of  life, 
undermining  at  the  centre  and  bringing  on  ruin 
by  slow  and  silent  insinuations.  This  is  a  parable 
of  what  betides  men  and  women.  You  may  not 
see  much  on  the  surface,  only  some  little  blister 
or  friable  spot,  as  on  a  brick;  but  within,  deep, 
hidden,  unseen,  where  one  would  not  dream  of  look- 
ing, there  lives  a  centre  of  disturbance  and  destruc- 
tion, —  eating,  spreading,  devouring,  and  preparing 
for  doom  and  dow^nfall.  Hence  the  importance  of 
sanity  in  the  very  interiors  of  man's  nature.  Disease 
is  a  change  from  the  normal  condition  of  an  organ 
and  its  function,  and  often  such  a  morbid  deteriora- 
tion sets  up  in  the  moral  nature,  whereby  the  whole 
heaven  of  religious  truth  is  darkened  and  falsified. 
One  then  sees  nothing  high,  sacred,  or  sublime,  or 
sees  it  dimly  and  in  grotesque  fashion.  Ask  any  one 
who  alleges  religious  insensibility  a  few  close,  direct 
questions,   and  they  will  likely  elicit  the   fact,   or 


44     BLESSING    OF    PURE   IN    HEART 

raise  the  suspicion  that  the  core  of  the  difficulty  lies 
in  some  obstructive  temper,  evil  propensity,  or 
habit,  —  a  certain  style  of  life  incompatible  with  a 
Christian  experience.  He  who  stirs  the  mud  at  the 
bottom  of  the  pool  will  not  see  the  reflection  of  trees 
and  moving  clouds  and  brave  o'erhanging  firma- 
ment. Every  one  needs  to  be  careful  lest  he  set  up 
a  habitude  of  thought  or  conduct  inimical  to  reli- 
gious conviction.  Men  criticise  the  evidences  of 
Christianity  without  first  criticising  themselves ;  this 
is  a  material  oversight  and  fatal  blunder. 

Your  critic  of  religion  may  be  a  frivolous  person, 
taken  up  with  shows  and  the  surfaces  of  things.  He 
may  be  a  complete  secularist,  devoted  to  gain,  his 
creed  his  business,  his  dividends  the  thirty-nine 
articles  of  it;  the  hum  of  the  market  and  the  roar 
of  the  street  drowns  for  him  all  music  from  higher 
spheres;  before  his  eager  eye  the  big  busy  world 
bulks  colossal  with  its  power-looms,  banks,  spindles, 
railways,  corporations,  tall  chimneys,  ten  thousand 
hammers  and  glowing  forges,  and,  sucked  into  the 
mad  whirlpool,  he  finds  neither  time  nor  taste  for 
quiet,  devout  meditation,  for  prayer  and  self-culture. 
It  is  not  hard  for  the  average  man  to  pick  flaws  in 
religion,  for  the  simple  reason  that  his  very  nature 
is  an  obstinate,  organized  protest  against  it.  In  the 
very  heart  of  him  is  a  blind  perversity  that  warps 
him  away  from  it  and  makes  it  inconvenient  and 
uncongenial ;  he  does  not  possess  the  native  prepara- 


BLESSING   OF    PURE   IN    HEART     45 

tion  to  estimate  it  accurately,  to  gauge  its  force  or 
enjoy  its  beauty,  Jesus  supplies  the  key  that  opens 
the  whole  situation,  —  the  pure  in  heart  see  God. 

The  inference  resulting  from  this  law  of  the 
Christian  kingdom  is,  that  man's  most  promising, 
prophetic  faculty  is  not  intellect,  the  power  of  ac- 
cumulating knowledge,  much  less  his  animal  life 
and  the  power  of  heaping  up  commodities  for  the 
satisfaction  of  that;  but  his  supreme  endowment 
is  the  moral  affections.  A  perception  of  God  and 
the  enjoyment  of  Him  is  promised  not  to  the  iron 
will  or  to  the  organizing  mind,  but  to  a  certain 
type  of  disposition.  This  Beatitude  clearly  exalts 
character  and  gives  unto  it  the  golden  sceptre.  Con- 
sequently it  is  an  encouraging  sentence,  and  tends 
to  put  mankind  more  upon  an  equality.  For  any 
one  may  see  that  had  the  vision  of  God  been  re- 
stricted to  the  kings  of  thought  and  invention,  to  the 
great  minds  of  the  world,  —  the  philosophic,  the 
constructive,  elaborative  minds,  —  to  the  poets,  who 
interpret  the  symbols  of  nature  and  come  near  to 
the  core  of  things,  —  did  these  own  the  monopoly 
of  the  largest  and  truest  conception  of  the  divine 
nature,  such  a  discrimination  would  be  discour- 
aging to  the  vast  multitude  for  whom  these  splen- 
did attributes  are  out  of  the  question.  But  when 
the  issue  is  set  upon  the  footing  of  character,  of 
moral  temper  and  affinity,  then  the  lists  are  open. 
All  may  run.    All  may  strive.    Any  child  of  Adam 


46     BLESSING    OF    PURE    IN    HEART 

may  cultivate  spiritual  qualities.  Any  one  may  give 
himself  to  purity,  to  humility,  to  meekness,  to  pa- 
tience, to  sincerity  of  purpose,  to  reverence,  to  sim- 
plicity, to  rectitude  of  life,  to  prayer,  to  communion 
with  the  Highest.  Any  one  by  diligence  and  care 
may  put  himself  into  a  receptive  condition  in  refer- 
ence to  these  sublime  qualities.  Behold  the  worth 
and  dignity  of  man's  moral  nature!  By  this  he 
takes  hold  of  the  highest  kind  of  truth.  Consider, 
also,  that  this  faculty  unfolds  latest,  which  may 
be  taken  as  a  mark  of  its  superiority.  Both  the 
animal  and  intellectual  life  reach  maturity  before 
the  moral  disposition  in  man.  Indeed,  in  multi- 
tudes of  our  race,  the  moral  intuitions  never  get 
much  volume  or  power.  In  the  lower  animals  there 
is  instinct,  memory,  sagacity,  much  that  simulates 
intelligence,  but  no  faculty  for  abstract  ideas  and  no 
ethical  life.  In  man,  first  and  alone,  emerge  prin- 
ciples, laws,  feelings  which  lay  the  foundation  of 
an  accountable  creature.  The  advent  of  religious 
ideas  and  emotions  was  a  totally  new  phenomenon 
on  this  planet,  made  an  epoch,  of  which  no  sure  hint 
and  prophecy  existed  in  lower  ranks  of  being.  And 
even  when  man  at  length  is  reached,  it  appears 
that  these  imperial  endowments  are  by  no  means 
equally  distributed.  There  are  more  men  of  prac- 
tical ability  than  of  spiritual  insight  and  power. 
The  intellect  is  active,  the  will  and  appetite  strong, 
but  morality  is   intermittent;    and  as   to   religious 


BLESSING    OF    PURE    IN    HEART     47 

conviction,  it  is  pronounced  mystical,  extravagant, 
and  feverish;  it  rarely  reaches  any  great  height  and 
hardihood. 

Observe,  now,  the  prophetic  strain  of  this  Beati- 
tude. It  predicts  that  a  day  is  on  the  wing  when 
the  finer  faculties  and  intuitions  shall  take  a  pro- 
digious leap,  ascend  the  summit  and  look  abroad 
upon  the  infinite  main,  upon  all  that  is  serene,  di- 
vine, and  unspeakable  in  this  universe,  —  the  pure 
in  heart  shall  see  God.  That  which  is  now  last  shall 
then  be  first.  The  crown  and  roof  of  things,  the 
specific  characteristic  of  man,  a  completely  fashioned 
will,  which  has  been  painfully  groping  its  way  up 
along  ranks  and  centuries,  and  even  yet  struggles 
and  welters  in  a  rudimentary  stage,  shall  at  last 
touch  its  climax  and  behold  God !  It  was  the  great- 
ness of  Socrates  that  he  announced  a  new  principle 
and  drew  attention  away  from  physical  speculations, 
inquiries  into  the  properties  of  matter  and  the  gen- 
esis of  things,  and  fixed  it  upon  the  study  of  man 
and  morality.  He  made  an  epoch  and  became  the 
father  of  ethics.  By  a  sort  of  inspiration  he  per- 
ceived that  the  great  questions  are  not  mechanical 
but  abut  upon  such  topics  as  mind,  duty,  destiny, 
conscience.  He  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  maj- 
esty and  certitude  of  the  moral  sentiment,  em- 
phasized that,  and  so  became  one  of  the  Immortals, 
—  an  unconscious  prophecy  of  heathendom,  a  sign- 
board on  the  road  to  Christianity,  with  its  cardinal 


48     BLESSING    OF    PURE    IN    HEART 

doctrine  of  personal  holiness.  Later  still,  in  the 
second  century,  a  new  philosophy,  Neo-Platonism, 
full  of  turbid  fancies,  arose,  antagonizing  the  gos- 
pel, and  assuming  to  bring  the  soul  into  close 
contact  and  direct  confrontation  with  Deity  by 
a  method  of  revery  and  fanatical  ecstasy,  by  a 
sort  of  somnambulism,  or  sublime,  internal  fer- 
ment, star-gazing  and  cloud-spinning,  and  such  like 
frenzied  mental  moods  and  contortions.  It  was  a 
vain  ambition,  but  testified  to  this  perennial  presen- 
timent that  the  vision  of  God  is  the  chief  end  of  man. 
Early  Monasticism,  also,  was  an  effort  to  solve  the 
same  problem.  In  the  fourth  century  Egypt  and  the 
East  were  full  of  earnest,  heroic,  ascetic  men,  who 
sought  by  frantic  excesses  of  self-abnegation  to  get 
a  glimpse  of  God,  a  wide,  open,  presentative  intui- 
tion of  His  glory.  This,  too,  was,  no  doubt,  a  fruit- 
less attempt.  Nevertheless,  it  testified  to  a  profound 
spiritual  craving.  It  was  a  dumb  groping  after  the 
substance  of  Jesus'  beatitude  and  of  man's  final 
state  when  God,  the  Immaculate  and  Perfect,  shall 
burst  like  a  sunrise  upon  the  ripened  soul  as  a  per- 
petual joy! 

I  counsel  you,  then,  in  the  light  of  this  prediction, 
not  to  undervalue  conscience  and  the  religious  emo- 
tions. They  are  the  most  prophetic  parts  of  the 
human  constitution.  They  are  like  rudimentary 
organs  which  foreshadow  more  than  at  present 
appears.     They  connect  with  a  more  powerful  and 


BLESSING    OF    PURE    IN    HEART     49 

superb  organism  yet  to  be  constructed.  Take  care 
of  the  hidden  states  of  feehng,  the  affections,  the 
will;  these  are  cardinal  with  reference  to  destiny, 
for  they  declare  one's  natural  affinities.  Interrogate 
yourself  and  ascertain  what  stuff  your  thoughts  are 
made  of,  what  are  your  ambitions  and  tendencies. 
Go  to,  find  out  what  that  is  in  you  that  intercepts 
a  vision  of  God.  For  every  soul  needs  to  get  a 
vision  of  God.  He  is  the  true  home  of  man's  soul. 
Without  Him,  life  is  a  fragment.  A  mortal  man 
passing  through  a  scene  so  dramatic  as  this,  with- 
out a  glimpse  of  eternal  things,  is  like  a  mariner 
on  stormy  seas  who  never  makes  the  port  for  which 
he  is  chartered. 

With  all  your  gettings,  get  a  comforting  sight  of 
God.  For  Jesus  declares  that  in  some  coming  dis- 
pensation they  who  are  able  to  bear  it  shall  draw 
nigh  to  the  supreme  source  of  purity.  Some  mar- 
vellous change  shall  pass  upon  them  whereby  they 
shall  be  able  to  sustain  so  great  a  sight.  Apostle 
Paul  explains  it  by  saying,  "  This  mortal  must  put 
on  immortality."  A  new  faculty  or  set  of  them, 
now  inconceivable,  will  be  bestowed  whereby  vast 
unexplored  kingdoms  of  knowledge,  love,  and  activ- 
ity will  be  unlocked  and  opened.  All  who  have 
the  aptitude,  the  sensibility,  are  destined,  in  some 
real  sense,  to  see  God.  Meantime  it  behooves  every 
candidate  for  such  a  promotion  to  purify  himself, 
to  keep  clear  of  all  that  is  base,  false,  sophistical,  all 

4 


50     BLESSING    OF    PURE   IN    HEART 

fleshly  fevers,  all  evil  contact,  and  thus  to  prepare 
for  this  splendid  apocalypse,  —  a  vision  of  God. 
Why  count  ourselves  unworthy  of  eternal  life? 
Why  not  take  our  birthright?  Why  not  fulfil  the 
indications  of  our  nature  and  come  to  the  top  of  our 
condition  and  enjoy  God  forever? 


1 


A   NEW   YEAR   SERMON 

Aftd  thou  shalt  remember  all  the  way  which  the  Lord  thy 
God  led  thee  these  forty  years  in  the  wilderness,  to  humble 
thee  and  to  prove  thee,  to  know  what  was  in  thy  heart.  — 
Deuteronomy  viii.  2. 

"^HESE  chapters  of  Deuteronomy  purport 
to  be  a  kind  of  valedictory  or  compendious 
summing  up  by  Moses  of  the  sahent  points 
of  Hebrew  history  since  the  days  of  the  Exodus. 
.They  had  been  casting  about  in  the  frightful  desert 
of  Zin,  a  tract  lying  south  of  Palestine,  into  which 
desolate  region  they  entered  after  leaving  the  Red 
Sea.  Their  apparently  aimless  wanderings  had  con- 
sumed forty  years,  and  toward  the  close  of  that 
period,  and  as  his  own  end  drew  nigh,  Moses  is 
reported  to  have  delivered  this  farewell  discourse. 
He  reminds  his  people  of  the  battles  they  had  fought 
with  the  Canaanitish  tribes,  the  difficulties  that 
blocked  their  advance,  and  the  discouragements  that 
appalled  them.  He  also  states  the  conditions  upon 
which  their  future  prosperity  and  permanence  de- 
pend, that  they  must  remember  Mount  Horeb  and 
the  Decalogue;  and  he  intimates  the  reason  why, 
instead  of  marching  directly  up,  out  of  Egypt,  into 
the  promised  possession,  they  had  been  led  by  such  a 


52  A   NEW    YEAR    SERMON 

toilsome,  circuitous  route.  It  was  not  because  they 
could  not  have  reached  their  inheritance  by  a  shorter 
cut ;  indeed,  ninety  days,  at  the  utmost,  would  have 
sufficed  to  have  brought  them,  bag  and  baggage, 
man  and  beast,  into  the  land  of  milk  and  honey. 
But,  says  their  great  leader,  remember  that  it  has 
required  forty  years  to  accomplish  this  march,  and 
this,  in  order  to  put  you  under  conditions  that  should 
test  the  qualities  of  your  disposition,  and  to  ascer- 
tain whether  or  not  you  were  made  of  stern  stuff 
and  were  fit  for  your  new  responsibilities. 

Such,  then,  appears  to  be  the  theory  of  Moses  con- 
cerning the  Hebrew  Exodus;  it  was  virtually  an 
examination  into  character,  an  investigation  into  the 
national  propensities  and  tastes.  The  divine  idea 
was  not  to  carry  them  all  safe  to  Canaan,  and  land 
them  punctually,  according  to  a  prearranged  sched- 
ule, but  rather,  by  a  winnowing  process,  to  dis- 
cover who  were  fit  to  arrive,  and  who  among  them 
would  make  the  best  material  for  the  new  political 
structure.  Hence  they  traversed  the  wilderness  of 
Paran,  marching  and  countermarching,  hithering 
and  thithering,  now  camping,  now  all  afoot  again, 
for  forty  tedious  years,  when  a  fraction  of  the  period 
would  have  set  a  term  to  their  pilgrimage,  if  done 
in  a  concerted,  rapid  manner,  and  if  the  question 
had  been  simply  a  geographical  one.  But,  as  matter 
of  fact,  it  was  a  moral  question,  and  this  made  a  vast 
difference.      And,    without   controversy,    their   cor- 


A    NEW   YEAR    SERMON  53 

porate  experience  in  the  desert  is  typical  of  the  his- 
tory of  our  race  and  also  of  the  personal  experience 
of  individuals.  The  Bible,  in  both  testaments,  is  a 
polished  mirror  in  which  is  reflected  the  form  and 
fashion  of  every  age,  down  to  the  last  syllable  of 
time.  The  men  and  women,  the  kings  and  the 
commoners,  who  live  and  move  and  sin  and  suffer 
through  its  scenes,  live  to-day,  have  lived  in  the  past, 
and  will  continue  through  every  subsequent  period 
of  mankind.  The  old  Hebrew  Bible  is  an  advanced 
sheet,  giving  in  outline  and  syllabus  a  record  of  the 
toils  and  struggles,  the  victories  and  defeats,  the 
force  and  feebleness  of  human  nature.  So  that  this 
remark,  attributed  to  Moses  and  primarily  applicable 
to  the  wandering  Hebrews,  is  really  a  large  general- 
ization, sums  up  a  wide  world  of  human  experience, 
supplies  a  key  to  immense  tracts  of  history,  and 
condenses  in  a  single  sentence  the  story  of  nations 
and  of  individuals. 

The  plain  teaching,  of  course,  lying  upon  the 
surface  of  this  statement,  is  that  the  influences  of 
divers  kinds,  positive,  negative,  neutral,  the  whole 
plexus  of  things  amid  which  man  is  plunged,  is  of 
the  nature  of  an  investigation  to  develop  what  lies 
latent  and  inactive;  it  is  an  education  designed  to 
bring  out  mental  and  moral  aptitudes  and  cjualities, 
and  to  unfold  one's  inwardness.  This  is  a  simple, 
trite  thought,  one  probably  more  thoroughly  appre- 
hended in  our  time  than  in  the  age  of  the  Exodus. 


54  A    NEW   YEAR    SERMON 

To  the  liberated  Hebrews  it  was,  most  likely, 
new;  their  ideas  upon  all  moral  questions  were 
crude  and  inadequate.  It  is  quite  clear  that  they 
did  not  understand  their  age  or  grasp  the  idea 
that  underlay  their  migration  and  which  had  or- 
ganized and  set  them  on  foot  and  carried  them  out 
of  Egypt.  It  was  not  intended  that  they  should 
have  any  option  of  their  own  or  any  initiative ;  every- 
thing was  done  for  them;  they  were  directed  and 
carried  like  children;  they  had  only  one  function, 
one  duty,  and  that  was  to  do  literally  as  they  were 
bidden.  They  were  allowed  no  discretion;  and  if 
they  ventured  to  take  it,  they  were  swiftly  and  ter- 
ribly punished.  Certainly  the  bleared  dim  eye  of  the 
Hebrews  did  not  sweep  a  wide  horizon  or  see  the 
end  of  those  wonders  amid  which  they  moved.  In- 
deed, the  record  states  that  their  disgust  and  scepti- 
cism respecting  the  whole  affair  had  frequently 
exploded  in  complaint  and  indignation.  They  ac- 
cused their  leaders  of  carrying  them  forth  on  a  fool's 
errand,  and  told  them  flatly  that  they  had  no  faith 
in  the  crusade.  And  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  moral 
inspiration  and  religious  genius  of  Moses,  the  move- 
ment would  have  collapsed  at  an  early  stage,  and 
the  whole  stupid  herd  would  have  straggled  back 
to  Egypt  and  bondage. 

But  it  was  not  to  be  so ;  God  had  provided  better 
things  for  our  race,  and  this  sullen,  mutinous, 
barbarous  horde  of  runaway  slaves  were  the  path- 


A    NEW    YEAR    SERMON  55 

finders  and  pioneers  at  the  front,  and  their  move- 
ment was  the  first  timid  streak  of  day  on  the 
brim  of  the  world's  horizon.  So,  on  the  edge  of 
Canaan,  Moses  unfolds  the  motive  and  end  of  the 
whole  weary,  footsore  business ;  it  was  to  prove 
them,  to  test  the  fibre  and  hardihood  of  their  faith 
and  patience. 

We  have,  then,  this  idea,  new  to  those  people,  but 
not  new  to  us  and  to  our  time,  that  man's  life  on 
earth  is  a  process  tending  to  fit  him  for  higher  con- 
ditions or  else  tending  to  make  manifest  his  inep- 
titude and  incapacity  to  estimate  or  enjoy  them. 
Human  life  is  a  severe  test;  it  actually  settles  some 
serious  truths  concerning  every  one  who  is  subjected 
to  its  processes  and  who  comes  hither  to  make  trial 
of  them.  It  probes,  it  searches,  it  finds  one,  it  dis- 
covers him  to  himself  and  to  others,  it  weighs  and 
labels  him,  it  expounds  both  his  strength  and  his 
weakness,  it  makes  an  inventory  of  his  mental  and 
moral  furniture  and  fittings;  so  far  as  we  can  see 
this  is  one  chief  end  of  life  for  man.  All  external 
haps  and  mishaps,  all  outward  conditions,  all  that 
befalls  one  in  public  and  private,  in  business,  in 
society,  in  the  household,  all  the  influences  that 
play  upon  one,  are  not  ends  in  themselves;  they 
are  instruments,  gauges,  scales,  solvents,  means 
to  determine  the  volume  and  affluence  or  else  the 
straitness  and  poverty  of  the  soul. 

Now  this  is  certainly  a  daring  conception,  but  it 


56  A    NEW    YEAR    SERMON 

unquestionably  belongs  to  the  Bible  and  is  an  inte- 
gral part  of  the  Christian  definition  of  human  life. 
Because  the  Bible  and  Christianity  seem  to  conceive 
of  the  earth  and  to  represent  it  as  a  theatre  erected 
by  the  Supreme  Wisdom  to  be  the  scene  of  an  experi- 
ment, —  not  a  mechanical  or  chemical  experiment, 
but,  far  more  serious,  a  moral  one.  This  is  the  Chris- 
tian theory  of  the  earth  and  man,  not  stated  in  terms 
of  matter  and  force,  but  in  terms  of  mind  and  moral- 
ity. So  that  while  gold,  iron,  brass  are  hidden  in 
the  interior  of  the  earth,  and  while  forests  of  tim- 
ber grow  out  of  it,  while  seas  tumble  and  flash 
on  its  surface,  and  harvests  return  year  after  year 
to  feed  man's  hunger,  and  he  may  build  up  his 
lofty  civilization  out  of  the  raw  materials  furnished 
in  nature,  clothing  himself  in  furs  and  fine  linen, 
hewing  his  dwelling-place  out  of  porphyry  and 
granite,  baking  clay  for  brick  and  feeding  upon  the 
finest  wheat,  nevertheless,  it  was  not  the  primary 
design,  to  create  and  upholster  a  planet  that  should 
simply  satisfy  the  animal  appetite,  and  where  man 
could  browse  and  fatten  and  frisk  like  a  calf.  The 
true  conception  of  the  earth  is  of  a  place  where  each 
element,  each  fact  is  a  symbol  of  somewhat  occult 
and  supernatural.  Consequently  it  is  not  so  impor- 
tant that  men  should  hunt  for  gold  as  that  they 
should  know  what  use  to  make  of  it  when  found. 
It  is  not  so  important  that  they  should  build  arks 
and  leviathans  fit  to  ride  stormy  seas  as  it  is  that 


A    NEW    YEAR    SERMON  57 

the  nations  be  drawn  together  and  the  federation 
of  the  world  be  hastened.  It  is  not  so  important 
that  they  should  grind  glasses  and  set  and  sight  tel- 
escopes, resolve  nebulae,  weigh  planets,  and  predict 
eclipses,  as  it  is  that  behind  the  stars  and  the  fir- 
maments they  should  detect  mind,  intelligence,  and 
will.  Without  this  moral  intention  the  universe 
becomes  a  mere  gristmill,  and  man  a  blind  horse 
on  an  endless  plank.  The  earth's  flora  and  fauna, 
its  marbles  and  metals,  its  sunrises  and  sunsets, 
all  that  it  contains  and  carries,  is  part  of  a  curricu- 
lum provided  for  the  instruction  and  elevation  of 
man.  The  whole  experiment  of  this  revolving  earth 
is  in  order  to  the  fashioning  of  human  faculties  and 
that  man  should  be  led  up  to  the  top  of  his  possi- 
bilities. If  we  leave  out  this  consideration,  it  will 
be  hard  to  account  for  the  present  constitution  of 
things;  the  earth  would  then  deteriorate  into  a 
larder,  a  ranch  for  cattle,  instead  of  a  solemn 
scene  where  man,  made  in  the  image  of  God, 
is  getting  stature  and  wisdom  and  expansion, 
and  making  increase  in  the  higher  elements  of 
personality. 

Man  alone  has  talents  that  are  cumulative  and 
progressive ;  no  other  creature  is  worthy  of  a  trial  or 
has  enough  in  it  to  justify  an  experiment.  Below 
man  there  is  sensation,  instinct,  memory,  sagacity, 
but  no  reason,  no  room  for  responsibility.  And 
the  main  stress  of  this  world,  its  occasions,  oppor- 


58  A    NEW    YEAR    SERMON 

tunities,  temptations,  falls  upon  our  moral  nature; 
the  main  point  is  to  ascertain  the  strength  or  weak- 
ness of  that.  Of  course  the  intellectual  powers 
are  also  tried;  it  does  not  take  long  to  discover 
whether  one  has  common  sense  and  a  practical  judg- 
ment, an  accurate  measurement  of  men  and  things,  or 
whether  he  is  visionary  and  foolish,  whether  he  be  a 
consecutive  logical  mind  or  a  confused,  inconsequent 
thinker,  whether  he  be  industrious  or  indolent ;  there 
are  abundant  occasions  in  this  world  calculated  to 
develop  these  private  traits;  no  world  more  admir- 
ably adapted  for  the  purpose  than  this  could  be  con- 
ceived. Tests  and  scales  are  constantly  at  hand  to 
make  manifest  what  one  is,  his  characteristics  and 
capacities.  One  is  apt,  in  the  long  run,  to  find  his 
level.  As  a  rule  men  stand  where  they  belong.  Un- 
doubtedly there  are  exceptions;  one  here  and  there 
is  overrated,  another  deserves  better  than  he  re- 
ceives. Yet  the  overrated  person  may  possess,  in 
a  high  degree,  some  quality  or  force,  an  energy, 
persistence,  definiteness  of  purpose,  which  com- 
pensates for  other  deficiencies  and  gives  him  the 
victory,  according  to  the  ordained  laws  of  success 
in  this  world.  Whereas,  conversely,  many  an  indi- 
vidual who  has  mind  enough  to  achieve  great  things, 
indeed  more  mental  power  than  many  who  do,  may 
yet  lack  some  important  qualification  which  is  ele- 
mentary and  essential,  and  which  accounts  easily  for 
his  backwardness   and   failure.     No  one  can   look 


A    NEW    YEAR    SERMON  59 

upon  human  society  and  not  see  that  it  is  an  excellent 
school  for  the  discovery  and  development  of  one's 
hidden  capital  of  natural  ability.  Take  any  human 
trait  and  you  shall  find  an  occasion  that  will  put  a 
heavy  strain  upon  it,  and  show  its  presence  or  ab- 
sence. Would  you  find  out  whether  one  has  energy, 
force  of  character,  directness?  Plant  him  in  the 
midst  of  a  general  scramble  and  race  for  supremacy 
and  watch  how  he  carries  himself.  Would  you  tell 
whether  one  is  industrious,  capable  of  close,  con- 
tinuous application?  Plunge  him  into  a  world  full 
of  work  and  calling  aloud  for  help.  Would  you  dis- 
cover whether  one  is  discontented,  sour,  a  grumbler, 
having  an  evil  eye  of  envy?  Confront  him  with  a 
set  of  stimuli  calculated  to  arouse  these  slumber- 
ing propensities.  The  only  effectual  way  of  get- 
ting at  the  final  fact  about  any  one  is  to  try  him 
and  see  how  he  reacts.  Moreover,  it  would  be 
hard  to  conceive  a  stage  better  fitted  to  give  scope 
and  exercise  to  the  talents  and  passions  of  men 
than  this  very  planet,  which  is  their  cradle  and  their 
tomb. 

So  that  this  Old  Testament  story  of  the  desert- 
wandering  Hebrews,  battling  with  Canaanites, 
threading  passes,  trudging  through  drought  and 
dust,  seems  indeed  to  be  a  foreshadowing  of  univer- 
sal human  experience,  a  type  of  the  general  method 
of  Divine  Providence  with  man.  Just  as  they  were 
bitten  by  scorpions  and  parched  by  thirst  and  se- 


6o  A    NEW   YEAR    SERMON 

duced  by  temptation  and  betrayed  into  idolatry,  just 
as  they  marched  down  avenues  of  miracle  and  were 
escorted  by  pillars  of  cloud  and  fire,  so  likewise 
God  brings  to  bear  upon  every  age  and  every  gener- 
ation of  mankind  machinery  and  appliances  to  de- 
velop character,  aptitude,  faculty.  He  sets  up  great 
ideals  to  evoke,  and  sustain,  and  direct  all  that  is 
best  in  human  nature.  Hence  I  say  that  this  old 
Hebrew  Bible  is  not  a  belated  survival,  an  interest- 
ing wreck  cast  up  on  the  shore  out  of  the  melancholy 
waste,  but  rather  an  accurate  record  of  contempo- 
raneous life  and  coeval  with  the  latest  times.  Every 
responsible  creature,  every  man  and  woman,  is  in 
process  of  being  led  around  by  providential  events 
and  by  the  force  of  his  circumstances,  precisely  as 
those  fugitive  Hebrews  of  the  Exodus ;  and  for  him 
it  does  just  what  it  did  for  them;  that  is,  it  reveals 
him,  explores  him,  expounds  him,  tells  what  he 
is  fit  for,  and  wherein  he  is  unfit.  The  earth  a 
stage  and  man  an  actor,  engaged  in  showing  forth 
unto  God  and  angels  what  it  is  in  him  to  do  and 
to  be!  A  solemn  truth  indeed,  and  yet  in  keeping 
with  the  Christian  theory;  for  an  Apostle  speaks 
of  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses  bending  from  their 
seats  and  hanging  over  the  human  arena  in  sus- 
pense and  expectation,  implying  clearly  that  man 
is  not  isolated  and  alone,  but  part  of  a  vast  spiritual 
system,  and  that  what  happens  here  goes  vibrating 
through  eternity. 


A   NEW   YEAR    SERMON  6i 

It  is  verily  a  tremendous  truth  of  the  Christian 
Scriptures  that  Divine  Providence  is  conducting 
men  and  women  through  this  earthly  scene  in  order 
to  show  what  is  in  their  hearts.  And  if  so,  you 
can  imagine  what  thrilling  tragedies,  broad  farces, 
amazing  spectacles  get  enacted  on  these  boards  of 
time.  We  pass  across  the  platform,  each  playing  his 
little  part,  each  pushed  by  his  strongest  impulse,  each 
illustrating  his  leading  trait,  each  acting  out  his 
deepest,  most  real  self  and  showing  forth  what  is  in 
his  heart.  Here,  for  example,  is  one  to  whom  ap- 
pearances are  everything,  wholly  given  up  to  deco- 
ration and  apparel,  to  outvie  in  externals,  —  this 
is  the  ruling  passion  of  the  person ;  and  so  he 
moves  up  and  down  through  the  world,  setting  forth, 
in  concrete  shape,  what  the  latest  fabrics  and  fash- 
ions and  fads  can  do  for  a  mortal  man,  and  demon- 
strating that  this  is  really  what  he  has  at  heart.  Or, 
perhaps,  sudden  wealth  overtakes  one,  and,  like  the 
rich  man  in  Christ's  parable,  he  does  not  know  how 
to  invest  his  surplus  securely.  While  he  was  poor, 
people  did  not  know  him,  and,  what  is  more,  he  did 
not  know  himself;  but  there  is  a  potent  property  in 
money  adapted  to  bring  into  conspicuous  relief  the 
undiscovered  and  unsuspected  in  character;  and  so 
with  his  wealth  and  his  consequent  importance  he 
moves  along  through  life,  led  by  the  strange  Provi- 
dence that  has  enriched  and  exalted,  all  the  while 
unwittingly    showing   what   effect    it    exerts    upon 


62  A   NEW    YEAR    SERMON 

him,  whether  he  can  walk  steady,  circumspect,  and 
humble,  whether  he  has  nobility  of  soul  or  a  light 
head  easily  turned  by  prosperity  and  by  the  flattery 
of  sycophants  and  such  as  cultivate  him  for  what  he 
has  rather  than  for  what  he  is.  So  likewise  with 
trouble,  disappointment,  disaster;  this  also  is  a 
deep-going  probe  and  discovers  the  hidden  soul. 
Many  a  man,  like  the  pilgrimizing  desert  Jews,  can 
feed  on  quails  who  does  not  take  kindly  to  manna. 
They  reminded  Moses  of  the  cucumbers,  onions,  and 
fish  of  Egypt;  no  doubt  he  remembered  them  too, 
only  with  him  they  were  not  the  dominant  consider- 
ation ;  he  had  ulterior  prospects,  but  the  crowd  grum- 
bled and  revolted.  And  unquestionably  misfortune 
sometimes  works  sad  havoc  with  men  and  women, 
makes  them  cynical,  sceptical,  morose,  mad,  and 
shows  up  phases  of  character  which  had  lain  latent. 
It  is  not  always  and  absolutely  certain  that  one 
who  has  been  faithful,  prayerful,  devout  in  the 
days  of  prosperity,  will  be  able  to  evince  the  same 
saintly  temper  should  straitness  and  embarrassment 
set  in.  This  drastic  experiment  was  tried  upon  Job, 
and  he  stood  it  splendidly ;  but  some  —  many  — 
cannot  stand  it;  they  wince,  weaken,  and  succumb. 
Many  can  carry  themselves  creditably  in  high  places 
of  eminence,  respectability,  and  renown  who  could 
not  bear  neglect  and  obscurity;  this  is  an  efficacious 
test.  Give  me  money,  position,  influence,  adulation, 
office,  troops  of  friends,  and  mayhap  I  shall  manage 


A   NEW    YEAR    SERMON  63 

quite  well  and  pass  for  a  paragon,  —  a  model  man. 
But  strip  me  suddenly,  let  the  four  winds  that  broke 
over  Job's  possessions  blow  down  mine  also,  and  it 
is  just  possible  that  the  resemblance  will  cease  and 
determine  at  that  point,  and  that  my  high  theoretic 
principles  will  go  down  before  the  storm  of  time 
and  the  stress  of  circumstances.  At  any  rate, 
adversity  is  one  of  the  methods  by  which  God  dis- 
covers what  is  in  man's  heart.  In  the  daily  fric- 
tions of  life,  in  its  scandals  and  quarrels,  in  the 
rupture  of  friendships,  in  the  selfishness  and  dis- 
honesty of  people,  in  bankruptcies,  loss  of  health, 
of  prosperity,  of  reputation,  of  kindred,  —  in  all 
that  befalls  which  is  inconvenient,  untoward,  disas- 
trous, —  you  may  recognize  a  scheme  of  moral  edu- 
cation for  souls,  all  going  to  this  point  to  ascertain 
whether  they  have  enough  sound  sense  and  reli- 
gious faith  to  perceive  a  divine  tendency  in  things 
and  to  learn  the  practical  lessons  involved  with  them. 
God  leads  men  as  He  did  those  forlorn,  overspent, 
wandering  Jews,  through  drought  and  heat,  through 
alarms  and  ambuscades,  to  see  if  they  are  strong 
enough  to  assault  and  carry  some  battlemented 
Jericho  and  to  eat  the  purple  clusters  of  Eshcol.  A 
solemn  truth  indeed,  that  your  life  is  the  solution  of 
a  problem,  a  public  exhibition  of  your  personal 
character  and  moral  temper.  Are  you  a  sensualist? 
Well,  then,  you  will  have  abundant  opportunity  to 
show  what  is  in  your  heart,  —  eating  and  drinking 


64  A   NEW   YEAR    SERMON 

your  way  through  the  world  and  Hving  by  the  force 
of  the  natural  appetites.  Are  you  addicted  to  greed 
and  money-getting?  This  is  only  pouring  the  cedar- 
oil  of  immortality  around  perishable  commodities 
and  showing  what  is  in  your  heart.  Are  you  de- 
voured by  love  of  self-display,  with  a  wolf's  hunger 
for  admiration,  applause,  popularity?  This  is  little 
better  than  the  strutting  of  a  lordly  peacock  in 
gay  plumage,  self-centred  and  self-seeking.  Every- 
where, at  every  turn,  in  the  shop,  in  the  office,  in  the 
drawing-room,  on  the  street,  we  are  showing  what 
is  in  our  heart,  —  our  ideals,  aims,  by  what  argu- 
ments and  motives  we  are  actuated.  Study  it  care- 
fully, and  this  is  really  a  prolific  principle,  and  one 
of  wide  applicability,  that  underlay  the  Exodus. 
For  it  comes  to  this,  that  howsoever  we  may  desig- 
nate our  callings  and  occupations  in  life,  there  is  a 
deep  below,  and  in  the  divine  idea  of  them  they 
are,  essentially,  the  ways  and  means  by  which 
we  are  discovered  to  ourselves  and  displayed  to 
others. 

There  remains  a  further  remark  suggested  by  this 
statement :  that  notwithstanding  the  enormous  ma- 
chinery set  up  in  the  world  to  instruct  and  admonish 
men,  their  theory  of  it  all  differs  very  widely;  they 
do  not  agree  as  to  the  final  end  and  intention  of 
this  world-process.  Although  they  are  led  around 
through  changeful  tracts  of  experience  and  manifold 
vicissitudes,  these  do  not  seem  to  be  charged  with 


A    NEW    YEAR    SERMON  65 

demonstration,  with  conviction;  it  does  not  seem 
to  stand  out  as  an  indubitable  truth  —  Hke  an  axiom 
in  Euchd  —  that  this  world  is  a  moral  system. 
There  is  a  wondrous  balancing  of  opposite  forces; 
life  is  so  arranged  that  one  can  blunder  blindly 
through  it  and  not  see  anything  special,  journey 
forty  years  in  the  wilderness  without  seeing  any 
miracles,  pillars  of  smoke,  rocks  gushing  with 
water,  any  brazen  serpent  for  the  healing  of  the 
camp,  any  lightnings  playing  around  the  top  of 
Sinai. 

Yes,  strange  to  say,  one  may  pass  through  this 
world  and  not  once  get  a  suspicion  that  there  is  any- 
thing peculiar  or  mysterious  about  it,  anything  sug- 
gestive and  solemn  and  calculated  to  arrest  attention. 
One  may  go  into  battles  and  captivities,  into  deaths 
and  dark  places,  great  billows  of  trouble  may  roll 
over  him,  little  insect  cares  may  buzz  around  him 
and  nibble  at  his  peace,  and  yet  leave  him  stolid, 
inert,  insensible.  So  that  while  on  the  one  hand 
the  text  calls  this  life  a  sort  of  school  or  testing 
time,  it  is  also  true  that  no  one  need  learn  anything 
or  find  out  anything  either  about  God  or  himself. 
All  the  apparatus  of  instruction  is  here,  hung  up 
along  the  firmament  and  glancing  from  the  stars ; 
here  are  maps  and  diagrams ;  yonder  revolves  the 
celestial  mechanism,  —  the  mighty  driving-wheels  of 
nature  rotate  ceaselessly  and  noiselessly  around  us; 
here,   too,   are  providential   lessons,   startling  coin- 

5 


66  A    NEW   YEAR    SERMON 

cidences,  scraps  of  poetic  justice,  monumental  ex- 
amples, dark  mysteries;  here  are  flashing  cataracts, 
the  lambency  of  northern  lights,  the  silentness  of 
forests,  the  majesty  of  mountains,  the  dim,  mystical 
seas ;  here,  too,  is  the  Bible,  the  visions  of  prophets 
and  apostles,  the  Person,  crucifixion,  and  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Christian  Church ;  here  also 
is  the  long  history  of  man,  the  chronicles  of  the  globe 
since  he  has  been  upon  it,  all  suggestive  of  plan, 
purpose,  progress ;  yea,  verily,  the  earth  is  full  of 
books,  full  of  thought,  full  of  creeds  and  philoso- 
phies, full  of  ideas  and  expectations,  yet  with  all 
there  is  no  absolute  necessity  that  one  should  learn 
anything;  there  is  not  a  fact,  element,  event  that  is 
charged  with  such  decisive  spiritual  meaning  that 
one  must  perceive  it,  cannot  possibly  evade  the  force 
of  it.  On  the  contrary,  one  may  be  a  materialist  and 
believe  in  nothing  but  an  anonymous,  inexorable, 
eternal  energy,  articulate  in  great  souls;  or  one 
may  be  a  secularist,  indifferent  to  transcendental 
inquiries,  his  motto,  "  One  world  at  a  time  " ;  or 
he  may  be  a  mocker,  or  an  active  iconoclast,  going 
forth  with  axe  and  torch  against  the  temple  and 
the  altar,  hewing  down  the  carved  work  of  the 
sanctuary,  making  sport  of  things  sacred,  turning 
mankind  loose  upon  blank,  arid  negations.  In  other 
words,  you  need  not  see  or  learn  anything  of  a 
transcendental  kind  if  you  do  not  wish.  Every- 
thing  depends   upon   one's   self   in   regard   to   this 


A   NEW   YEAR    SERMON  67 

matter  of  the  earthly  education.  There  Is  teach- 
ing enough,  precept  and  example,  prophecy  and 
parable;  there  are  great  ideas  astir  and  vast  pre- 
sentiments in  man's  soul,  and  broad  moral  tend- 
encies sweeping  around  the  world.  The  wise, 
the  serious,  the  spiritual  will  understand  and  get 
conviction  and  comfort;  but  nothing  is  compul- 
sory, nothing  fully  demonstrated.  An  Almighty 
Hand  leads  men  through  this  mortal  life,  through 
the  austerities  of  winter  and  the  glories  of  sum- 
mer, through  old  years  and  new  years,  through 
sickness  and  health,  through  quaking  bogs  and 
along  dizzy  ledges  and  upon  beetling  crags  down 
into  the  shadows  of  the  valley  and  thence  up 
toward  the  sunny  peaks ;  slowly  and  silently  they 
are  conducted  by  a  strong,  gentle  hand  that  they 
cannot  see,  can  only  feel  its  pressure  and  pull ; 
because  the  divine  idea  underlying  this  world  is 
to  prove  man  to  see  what  is  in  his  heart.  And  if 
all  things  were  clear,  obvious,  incontrovertible, 
so  as  to  leave  no  room  for  doubt  or  fear,  then 
there  would  be  no  room  either  for  faith,  patience, 
self-control,  and  much  of  the  training  of  the  soul 
would  be  lost.  The  whole  scheme  is  designed  to 
make  manifest  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the 
heart. 

Just  as  one  tourist  sees  more  grandeur  in  Niagara: 
or  in  the  Alps  than  another,  just  as  an  artist  can 
judge  of  a  group  of  statuary  or  of  a  painting  by 


68  A    NEW    YEAR    SERMON 

reason  of  a  sympathetic  insight  —  a  dehcacy  of  per- 
ception not  accorded  to  the  common  eye,  —  so,  too, 
there  exists  the  widest  difference  among  men  in  the 
power  of  seeing  God  in  the  world,  in  Hfe,  in  na- 
ture, in  history,  and  of  extracting  good  from  it. 
A  man's  way  may  be  strewn  with  miracles,  so  to 
speak,  with  hair-breadth  escapes,  with  notable  oc- 
currences, with  deliverances  calculated  to  awaken 
thought  and  beget  repentance  and  set  up  a  religious 
hope;  he  may  march  for  forty  or  eighty  years 
through  life's  wilderness  and  see  no  more  than  a 
blind  man  can  see  in  the  British  Museum,  or  hear 
no  more  of  God  than  the  deaf  can  hear  of  an  orches- 
tra of  stringed  instruments;  there  must  be  percep- 
tion, aptitude,  sensibility.  It  is  not  enough  that  God 
has  hung  the  earth  upon  nothing  and  wreathed  it  in 
a  blue  atmosphere  and  lit  it  up  with  sun,  moon,  and 
stars,  and  curtained  it  with  thick  clouds  and  crim- 
son twilights  and  overarched  it  with  rainbows;  it 
is  not  enough  that  ages  and  empires  are  rolled  up 
like  a  garment  and  laid  aside  like  a  vesture;  it  is 
not  enough  that  the  personal  experience  of  men  and 
women  is  full  of  pathos,  tragedy,  toil,  and  sorrow, 
full  of  suggestion,  instigations,  and  motives ;  there 
must  be  more  than  this.  You  must  be  able  to  read 
the  handwriting.  You  must  be  a  Joseph,  a  Daniel, 
able  to  interpret  the  hidden  meaning.  Do  you  re- 
member, then,  the  way  along  which  God  has  led 
you?     Standing  upon  the  edge  of  a  new  year,  do 


A    NEW    YEAR    SERMON  69 

you  remember  the  forty  years  in  the  wilderness? 
Stop  and  consider.  Have  no  significant  dates,  no 
critical  junctures,  no  days  of  darkness  lifted  them- 
selves along  your  track  through  life?  Have  you 
come  across  no  oasis  and  spot  of  verdure  where  you 
thought  you  would  like  to  abide  awhile,  but  which 
you  had  to  leave?  Can  you  recall  no  day  of  as- 
tonishment and  of  trembling,  of  paleness  and  fear, 
when  the  knees  were  weak  and  the  heart  melted  like 
wax?  Has  nothing  happened  in  your  life  which 
has  put  forth  a  controlling  influence,  shaped  your 
course,  and  made  you  largely  what  you  are?  Do 
you  see  the  way  by  which  you  have  come  ?  Do  you 
see  where  you  made  a  profound,  irremediable  mis- 
take? Do  you  see,  too,  how  that  something  else  in 
which  you  erred  was  overruled  and  compounded  for 
the  best,  so  that  you  did  not  suffer  as  much  damage 
as  should  naturally  have  occurred?  Do  you  recall 
your  happy  hits,  right  choices,  successful  moves,  and 
also  the  slough  of  despond  in  which  you  have  been 
mired  and  the  angry  seas  upon  which  you  have 
been  tossed  and  the  dark  entries  through  which  you 
have  groped  your  uncertain  way?  Do  you  remem- 
ber the  forty  years  in  the  wilderness?  And  have 
they  proved  you  and  shown  what  is  in  your  heart? 
Take  yourself  seriously.  Inquire  whether  your  life 
has  been  steadily  working  toward  glory,  honor, 
and  immortality;  has  it  been  a  growth  in  the  best 
and  highest  elements  of  character?     Has  it  been 


70  A    NEW   YEAR    SERMON 

a  march,  with  here  and  there  a  halt  and  deten- 
tion, toward  a  heavenly  Canaan,  —  the  kingdom 
of  light,  the  land  of  life  ?  Look  and  see  where  you 
are  and  what  you  are,  and  remember  all  the  way  in 
which  God  has  led  you. 


THE   NEED    OF   FAITH 

But  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  him  :  for  he 
that  Cometh  to  God  tmist  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  a 
rewarder  of  thei7i  that  diligently  seek  him.  —  Hebrews 
xi.  6. 


HE  text  is  thrown  in  by  way  of  paren- 
thesis.    A    sudden    thought    strikes    the 


T 

-**-  writer  m  connection  with  the  pre-diluvian 
patriarch  Enoch,  Enoch,  he  says,  was  essentially 
a  spiritual  man,  and  that,  too,  in  an  age  when  faith 
and  even  morality  had  almost  perished  from  the 
earth.  He  was  a  man  of  impregnable  convictions, 
of  devotional  frames,  and  of  prophetic  forecast;  he 
walked  with  God,  and  disappeared  from  the  world 
in  a  mysterious,  miraculous  manner,  as  a  seal  of 
divine  approbation  set  upon  his  career  and  char- 
acter. Enoch  pleased  God,  says  the  Apostle,  when 
very  few  did  please  Him,  and  when  the  currents  of 
impiety  and  recklessness  roared  high  and  loud  and 
human  wrecks  were  swept  along  upon  the  swirling 
tide.  And  just  here  the  author  of  the  epistle  inserts 
a  general  remark.  He  rises  from  the  particular 
instance  to  the  universal  principle.  The  text  is  a 
generalization,  of  which  the  case  of  Enoch  is  only 
a  single  strand.     That  more  comprehensive  law  or 


^2  THE    NEED    OF    FAITH 

principle  is  this:  that  without  faith  it  is  impossible 
to  please  God.  Not  only,  says  the  Apostle,  is  it  true 
of  Enoch,  but  it  is  universally  true  that  men  cannot 
satisfy  God  without  the  possession  and  exercise  of 
those  qualities  which  the  patriarch  evinced  and 
which  abut  upon  the  unseen  and  eternal.  The  idea 
seems  to  be  that  neither  the  character  of  God  nor 
the  claims  of  the  moral  law  have  changed  or  abated 
so  as  to  make  other  standards  and  ideals  of  heart 
and  conduct  necessary.  That  which  was  good  for 
the  first  moral  agent  who  stepped  forth  upon  the 
finished  planet  is  good  and  valid  to-day,  and  for 
men  living  and  dying  now.  Here,  at  length,  is 
a  firmament  where  there  are  no  perturbations, 
no  meteoric  bodies,  no  changes  of  relation  and 
position,  no  parallaxes,  but  certain  steady,  ever- 
lasting truths,  which  do  not  suffer  by  time  and 
do  not  rec[uire  to  be  adapted  to  varying  secular 
conditions. 

Consider  first  that  the  text  is  the  announcement 
of  a  great  principle  of  God's  moral  government. 
Principles  are  compounded  of  facts;  whoever  an- 
nounces a  veritable  principle  has  a  body  of  facts 
behind  him.  A  principle  is  not  an  idol  of  the 
intellect ;  it  is  not  a  mental  invention ;  it  is  not  a 
fancy;  it  is  not  a  conception  like  an  artist's,  which 
may  be  true  to  life  and  experience,  or  untrue.  A 
principle  derives  its  validity  and  rank  from  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  the  facts  upon  which  it  rests. 


THE    NEED    OF    FAITH  yz 

You  may  frame  a  hypothesis,  but  it  does  not  attain 
unto  the  dignity  of  a  principle  or  law  until  it  has 
been  authorized  by  overwhelming  experience  or  by 
the  native  convictions  of  mankind,  and  when  thus 
settled  it  is  not  easily  disturbed. 

Thus,  if  in  the  realm  of  human  experience  a 
sufficient  number  of  facts  could  be  accumulated  to 
show  that  honesty,  in  the  long  run,  is  not  the  best 
policy,  or  that  the  way  of  transgressors  is  not  hard, 
or  that  long  credits  are  desirable,  or  that  competi- 
tion is  not  favorable  to  trade  and  does  not  insure 
the  best  article;  if  such  conclusions  could  be  estab- 
lished by  an  overplus  of  facts,  their  contraries,  which 
now  hold  the  field,  would  be  discrowned  and  retired. 
But  there  is  another  sense  put  upon  the  term.  When 
a  person  declares  that,  upon  principle,  he  declines  to 
act  thus  and  so,  to  grant  or  gratify  some  wish  or 
request,  he  may  touch  both  the  spheres  of  experience 
and  of  necessary  truth.  Thus,  he  may  mean  that  his 
previous  knowledge  of  men  and  events,  of  what 
may  be  reasonably  expected  and  what  not,  does  not 
justify  him  in  doing  what  he  is  asked  to  do ;  and  so 
he  replies,  "  My  uniform  principle  is  to  decline  all 
such  overtures."  Hard  facts,  rough  usage,  bitter 
disappointment,  irretrievable  loss  have  been  his 
schoolmasters  and  taught  him  better.  He  has 
reached  a  principle  of  action  as  the  result  of  experi- 
ence. Or  he  may  reply,  "  I  will  not  do  it  because  I 
do  not  consider  it  right,"  and  that  is  a  strain  from  a 


74  THE   NEED    OF    FAITH 

higher  measure.  Irrespective  of  his  personal  his- 
tory, his  haps  and  mishaps,  he  dedines  peremptorily 
upon  the  ground  of  moral  conviction.  "  It  is  against 
my  conscience,"  he  says ;  "  it  does  violence  to  my 
sense  of  justice,  propriety,  human  fellowship;  it  is 
against  my  principles,  I  will  not  do  it."  In  such 
a  case,  observe,  the  principle  is  not  compacted  of 
the  facts  of  life;  it  has  an  aroma  as  though  it  were 
wafted  from  an  outlying  continent  of  immutable 
truth  and  morality.  In  short,  rules  of  conduct  may 
arise  exclusively  from  finite  experience,  or  they  may 
carry  a  hint  or  echo  of  a  world  of  reals  that  would 
endure  if  earth  and  man  were  to  sink  into  ashes  or 
pass  away  in  vapor. 

The  proposition  of  the  text  —  without  faith  it  is 
impossible  to  please  God  —  belongs  to  this  latter 
class.  It  is  a  truth  of  the  higher  reason,  not  of  the 
lower  experience ;  it  is  a  revealed  truth,  not  a  truth  of 
practical  observation  of  men  and  things.  Because, 
looking  at  the  matter  superficially,  there  are  mental 
states  to  which  one  would  give  the  preference  over 
faith.  We  would  more  naturally  specify  obedience, 
morality,  truthfulness,  sympathy,  benevolence,  gen- 
erosity. There  are  several  dispositions  which  ante- 
cedently seem  to  have  a  superior  claim  to  faith 
as  the  ground-form  of  a  religious  nature.  There 
is  a  vein  of  utility  running  through  human  life  that 
crops  out  in  such  questions  as,  What  is  the  use  of 
it?    There  is  an  impatience  of  theory,  of  doctrine, 


THE   NEED    OF    FAITH  75 

of  abstractions,  and  a  desire  to  reduce  all  things  to 
the  tests  of  experiment  and  sensation.  And  this 
symptom  appears  in  the  sphere  of  religion,  so  that 
when  men  come  to  define  what  is  fundamental  to  it, 
they  are  apt  to  alight  upon  dispositions  and  courses 
that  can  be  seen,  estimated,  are  public  and  open  to 
inspection,  rather  than  upon  interior,  devotional, 
mystical  moods  of  mind.  Go  to  the  priests  of  any 
tribe  and  ask  what  constitutes  religion,  and  few 
would  make  the  discriminating  mark  or  fundamen- 
tal note  of  it,  this  principle  of  faith.  Many  would 
say  fear.  Looking  out  upon  tremendous  nature, 
taking  notice  of  its  mighty,  destructive  agents,  — 
how  fickle  and  capricious  it  is  at  times,  how  helpless 
man  lies  in  the  midst  of  prodigious  forces,  —  they 
would  answer,  "  Our  religious  ceremonies  are  built 
upon  fear;  we  are  afraid  of  the  upper  powers,  we 
do  our  best  to  appease  and  conciliate  them."  Or 
take  another  class  of  men,  and  among  them  it  would 
appear  that  self-mortification,  asceticism,  the  macer- 
ation of  the  flesh  with  its  desires  and  propensities, 
dreamy  brooding  over  the  vanity  of  life,  form  the 
backbone  of  a  religious  character.  In  so  far  as  one 
succeeded  in  becoming  unnatural  would  he  rise 
in  the  scale  of  perfection  until,  like  a  Hindoo  devo- 
tee, he  would  be  consumed  with  zeal  to  be  swal- 
lowed up  in  the  ocean  of  being  and  absorbed  into 
the  divine  essence  —  as  comets  fall  into  the  sun. 
Or   should   you   visit   practical,    active,    aggressive 


^d  THE    NEED    OF    FAITH 

peoples,  the  religious  idea  will  be  colored  by  their 
characteristics ;  they  will  lay  the  accent  on  behav- 
ior ;  they  will  inquire  about  integrity,  righteousness, 
almsgiving,  and  the  like.  Few,  probably,  would 
hit  upon  faith  as  the  underlying,  basal  principle 
of  religion.  Their  ritual  might  imply  it.  Their 
modes  of  approaching  and  worshipping  God  would 
seem  to  involve  a  belief  in  His  existence,  but  this 
would  not  be  the  conspicuous  feature. 

The  Apostle  makes  faith  fundamental.  He  be- 
gins at  the  foundation.  He  lays  there  the  corner- 
stone. He  is  an  explorer  tracing  the  Nile  to  its 
source.  Behind  and  beneath  and  before  all  postures 
of  mind  or  outward  acts  he  sets  up  faith  as  a 
prime  necessity.  It  is  like  an  axiom  in  mathematics. 
It  must  be  granted  in  order  to  proceed :  he  that 
cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  He  is.  Back  of  all 
creeds,  rituals,  altars,  ordinances,  acts,  mysteries,  lies 
this  primordial  truth. 

Consider  also  this  important  fact,  that  it  is  neces- 
sary for  something  to  be  —  to  exist  —  in  order  to 
render  human  life  a  real  or  serious  concern.  The 
only  key  that  unlocks  this  mystery  of  life,  society, 
man,  and  time,  is  found  in  the  assumption  that  there 
is  a  sublime  reality,  an  absolute  Being,  in  this  uni- 
verse —  in  it  and  above  it,  or,  as  the  text  states,  God 
is.  We  must  believe  that  He  is.  This  idea  is  the 
only  anchor  that  lies  deep  enough  to  steady  the 
world.    It  alone  interprets  life  and  nature  and  human 


THE   NEED    OF   FAITH  yj 

history.  It  is  the  only  theory  which  explains  why 
anything  else  is.  You  may  call  it  a  highly  meta- 
physical notion,  and  so  it  is;  the  world  is  built 
upon  the  rock  of  a  great,  eternal,  incomprehensible 
truth.  It  does  not  rest  poised,  as  in  the  legend  of 
Indian  mythology,  upon  the  back  of  an  elephant 
and  the  elephant  standing  upon  a  tortoise  and  the 
tortoise  upon  —  no  one  knows  what.  No,  it  is  a 
solemn,  significant  world  grounded  upon  an  infinite 
reality.  Men  have  battled  the  question,  in  every 
age  of  reflective  thought,  whether  anything  really 
is.  This  is  one  of  the  deepest,  most  divisive  problems 
that  has  sprung  up  in  the  world.  Foolish  and  un- 
practical as  such  an  inquiry  appears,  it  has  made 
epochs  and  exercised  the  subtlest  minds  of  our  race. 
Philosophers  have  edged  cautiously  along  the  coast 
of  this  question  and  explored  it  as  far  as  their 
strength  and  courage  would  carry  them.  Is  there 
reality  in  life,  nature,  appearances,  or  does  man 
walk  in  a  vain  show  ?  Is  he  a  dreamer  playing  fan- 
tastic tricks  upon  himself?  He  looks  out  upon  the 
universe  and  soliloquizes :  "  I  seem  to  see  something, 
certain  uniformities  and-  successions,  I  perceive 
bundles  of  facts,  events,  transactions,  processions 
pass  before  me.  It  appears  to  be  an  actual 
world."  So  he  reasons.  But  whence  does  it  all 
proceed?  What  lies  back  of  it?  If  it  be  reality, 
is  there  no  deeper  reality?  If  it  exist,  does  noth- 
ing else  exist  behind  it?     Is  the  world  sufficient  of 


78  THE    NEED    OF    FAITH 

itself,  or  does  the  mind  naturally  inquire  after  a 
loftier,  more  comprehensive  certainty?  Here  are 
matter  and  force,  so  called,  the  pillars  upon  which 
creation  rests,  doing  all  kinds  of  work,  wearing 
different  liveries.  Now  are  these  ultimate?  Or 
is  there  somewhat  behind  these  effects  of  protean 
matter  and  prodigious  force  which  we  may  define 
as  intelligent  and  moral?  Because,  without  intelli- 
gence and  morality  the  things  that  are  might  as 
well  not  be,  so  far  as  their  value  or  significance 
is  concerned.  So  that  as  men  walk  up  and  down 
through  the  world  and  observe  its  ordinances  and 
arrangements,  the  whole  economy  of  this  terraque- 
ous globe,  and  ask  themselves,  how  did  all  this 
come  to  pass?  what  is  the  cause  and  ground  of  it 
all?  it  is  not  sufficient  and  satisfactory  to  reply  that 
things  are  and  that  is  the  end  of  it,  because  what 
are  they  if  there  be  nothing  else,  nothing  beyond 
them  ? 

The  mind  naturally  seeks  in  all  that  appears  an 
underlying  principle  that  shall  account  for  the  thing 
and  authorize  it,  so  that  a  universe  like  this  without 
an  intelligent  will  and  sovereignty  over  it  is  the 
most  profound,  insoluble  mystery  that  can  cast  its 
shadow  over  the  human  spirit.  If  there  be  nothing 
more  to  it  than  what  is  patent  and  obvious,  what  we 
can  see  with  the  naked,  unarmed  eye,  or  with  telescope, 
microscope,  spectroscope,  then  surely  no  Sphinx  ever 
put  forth  such  a  riddle.    No  bird  ever  caught  in  the 


THE   NEED    OF    FAITH  79 

trap,  no  fish  ever  caught  in  the  net,  no  garlanded  ox 
led  to  the  shambles,  no  disappointed  heir  of  great  ex- 
pectations, was  ever  so  profoundly  befooled  as  man, 
living  in  such  a  world  as  this,  with  so  much  to 
excite  hope  and  inspire  confidence  and  prophesy 
future  developments,  —  if  there  be  no  God,  no 
eternal  thought  at  the  base  of  things,  no  sacred, 
throbbing  heart  behind  and  within  this  universe 
to  answer  to  his  endless  aspirations,  his  hungers  of 
the  soul,  moral  ideas,  religious  instincts,  and  nascent 
possibilities. 

But  the  Apostle  not  only  affirms  the  bare  existence 
of  God ;  he  adds  that  He  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that 
diligently  seek  Him.  This  is  an  advance  upon  the 
simple  proposition  that  God  is.  That  is  not  quite 
enough.  We  want  to  know  more.  Because,  force 
is,  matter  is,  nature  is,  space  is,  time  is,  and  one 
might  insist  upon  putting  this  affirmation  that  God 
is  upon  the  same  plane  and  as  signifying  no  more. 
Thus  one  may  be  a  deist  and  say,  "  God  is  order, 
power,  law  " ;  or  a  pantheist,  and  make  the  total- 
ity of  things  an  equation  for  God.  Hence  the 
Apostle's  definition  is  pertinent.  God,  he  de- 
clares, is  not  simply  bare,  abstract  existence,  He 
is  clothed  with  certain  characteristics,  He  is  a 
moral  nature.  For  this  word  "  rewarder  "  implies 
discrimination,  sensibility,  freedom,  benevolence.  It 
means  all  that  is  included  under  the  term  personal- 
ity.    It  involves  intellectual,  emotional,  and  moral 


8o  THE    NEED    OF    FAITH 

states.  So  that  analyze  the  text  and  it  amounts 
to  this :  that  whosoever  approaches  God  must 
believe  not  that  He  is  a  name  for  the  universe,  or 
that  He  is  irresistible  power,  or  the  sum  of  natural 
sequences,  or  an  expression  for  physical  laws,  or 
a  formula  for  nature  and  its  manifold  processes, 
but  that  He  is  a  person.  This  is  really  a  tre- 
mendous truth.  The  existence  of  a  personal 
God  is  one  of  those  perennial  questions  which  men 
cannot  let  alone.  It  agitates  the  world  evermore. 
The  niceties  of  mediaeval  theology  are  no  longer 
so  interesting  as  this  underlying  problem,  whether 
God  be  personal,  a  perfect  reason,  a  righteous 
will. 

Into  these  depths  men  are  sinking  shafts.  In  the 
field  of  religious  thought  the  human  mind  is  working 
ever  farther  down  to  the  root-conceptions  of  God, 
w^ho  is  He?  and  man,  what  is  he?  We  want,  if 
possible,  to  discover  the  facts  which  most  concern 
us  as  moral  creatures.  No  subjects  are  compar- 
able to  these  in  dignity  and  importance.  As  the 
mariner,  standing  twenty  miles  out  at  sea,  catches 
across  the  dreary  waters  the  flash  of  the  revolving 
light  on  the  coast,  so  we  human  voyagers  can  just 
descry  points  of  light,  hints  of  a  vast,  unexplored 
continent  of  knowledge.  The  fact  that  man  can 
think  about  God,  a  rewarding,  redeeming,  loving 
God,  a  God  of  justice,  goodness,  and  truth,  is  of 
itself  a  tremendous  portent.     This  mental  process 


THE    NEED    OF    FAITH  8i 

by  which  we  can  take  all  that  we  find  in  nature,  in 
the  soul,  in  humanity,  that  is  noble,  generous,  spirit- 
ual, prophetic,  and  make  it  a  shadow  of  the  perfect 
attributes  of  God,  I  call  this  a  flash-light  off  the 
eternal  coast.  By  thinking  upon  God  a  man  grows 
gradually  like  unto  Him.  And  this  should  be  the 
prime  effort  of  the  human  spirit,  to  get  such  an 
idea  of  the  divine  nature  as  shall  make  the  invis- 
ible real,  a  practical  truth.  Just  so  long  as  men 
think  of  God  as  a  perhaps,  a  bare  possibility,  a 
formula,  an  abstraction,  they  will  derive  but  little 
stimulus  and  strength  from  the  exercise.  Such  a 
conception  has  not  enough  in  common  with  them- 
selves to  give  aid,  comfort,  and  joy.  When  a  man 
prays,  if  he  be  doubtful  whether  he  be  speak- 
ing to  the  night  air  or  uttering  his  words  in  the 
ear  of  vacancy,  the  exercise  cannot  be  expected  to 
be  fruitful  or  elevating;  he  that  cometh  to  God 
must  believe  that  He  is.  It  is  a  highly  philosoph- 
ical statement,  it  is  a  piece  of  good  reasoning.  If 
a  man  cannot  accept  the  idea  of  God  as  a  person, 
a  will,  if  he  cannot  believe  that  God  is  enough 
like  unto  himself  to  understand  him,  to  sympa- 
thize with  him,  to  help  him,  to  interpret  his  wants 
and  feelings ;  if  there  be  no  common  term  between 
them,  no  isthmus  upon  which  they  can  meet,  in 
such  case  it  is  not  possible  for  God  and  man  to  hold 
communion. 

The  text  is  a  condensed  and  powerful  argument. 

6 


82  THE   NEED    OF    FAITH 

You  must  believe  that  God  is  if  you  would  get  any 
hope  or  help  out  of  prayer,  out  of  any  religious  exer- 
cise. Draw  nigh  unto  God  under  this  great  persua- 
sion. Speak  unto  Him  as  a  man  speaks  to  his  friend. 
Take  it  for  granted  that  He  will  hear  and  under- 
stand and  answer  you,  that  He  waits  to  be  gracious, 
that  He  loves  them  that  love  Him  and  rewards 
openly  those  who  diligently  seek  Him.  What- 
ever your  case  be,  go  to  God  believing  that  He 
can  help  you.  If  there  be  any  sin,  sorrow,  anxiety, 
burden  crushing  your  heart,  carry  it  to  God,  not 
once  but  seven  times,  not  seven  times  but  seventy 
times  seven.  Say  with  wrestling  Jacob,  "  I  will  not 
let  Thee  go,  except  Thou  bless  me."  Here  lies  our 
difficulty.  We  do  not  think  of  God  as  real,  and 
religion  as  real ;  it  is  all  abstract,  remote,  inacces- 
sible. And  one  chief  object  of  Christ's  errand  to  the 
world  was  to  unveil  God,  to  show  how  much  there  is 
in  common  between  God  and  man,  and  to  set  forth 
the  divine  nature  to  human  apprehension,  under 
familiar  and  easily  intelligible  imagery.  Knock, 
and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you.  Seek,  and  ye  shall 
find.  Your  heavenly  Father  is  more  willing  to 
give  the  Holy  Spirit  unto  them  that  ask  Him,  than 
parents  to  give  good  gifts  to  their  children.  Jesus 
made  the  infinite  God  intensely  real,  and  brought 
Him  close  to  our  human  nature.  This  is  the  message 
of  Christianity;  it  makes  the  eternal  God  visible  and 
palpable  in  Jesus  Christ.     Translate  your  religious 


THE   NEED    OF    FAITH  83 

beliefs  out  of  the  theoretic  into  the  practical  tense. 
Hold  them  not  simply  as  intellectual  tenets,  but  make 
them  precious  possessions.  Go  continually  unto 
God,  believing  that  He  is  the  rewarder  of  those  who 
seek  Him. 


WORSHIP   GOD 

And  I  John  saw  these  things,  and  heard  them.  And  when 
I  had  heard  and  seen,  I  fell  down  to  worship  before  the  ftet 
of  the  angel  which  shewed  me  these  things. 
Then  saith  he  unto  me.  See  thou  do  it  not :  for  I  am  thy 
fellow  servant,  and  of  thy  brethren  the  prophets,  and  of  them 
which  keep  the  sayings  of  this  book:  worship  God. — 
Revelation  xxii.  8-9. 

WONDROUS  sights  and  sounds  —  a  splen- 
did spectacle  —  had  passed  rapidly  be- 
fore John  in  vision  on  the  isle  of  Patmos. 
It  was  a  bare,  rocky  place  in  the  .i^gean  Sea, 
some  fifteen  miles  in  circumference,  whither  the 
Roman  government  banished  convicts  and  dangerous 
persons,  and  there  Apostle  John  was  sent  by  Domi- 
tian.  But  almost  every  disadvantage  has  some  com- 
pensation, and  so  he  found  it,  for  it  was  upon  this 
barren  and  lonely  isle  that  the  main  lines  of  the 
future  were  sketched  for  him  and  the  fortunes  of  the 
church  depicted  as  on  a  canvas.  He  wandered 
through  the  halls  and  under  the  arches  and  along 
the  corridors  of  coming  time,  and  saw  dynasties  and 
revolutions  and  political  and  social  changes  of  large 
significance  pass  in  review  before  him,  and  at  the 
end  of  it  all  he  beheld  the  inauguration  of  the  king- 
dom of  Christ  on  earth.     He  was  well  repaid  for 


WORSHIP    GOD  85 

exile  by  getting  such  a  gHmpse  of  the  world  that  was 
to  be,  a  world  distinctly  different  from  that  contem- 
porary Roman  civilization  with  its  sores  and  plague 
spots.  And  as  the  curtain  dropped  upon  the  scene, 
and  the  long  and  dramatically  interesting  story  was 
closing,  John  was  so  happy,  and  so  deeply  sensible, 
too,  of  the  honor  conferred  upon  him  in  having  been 
admitted  to  look  upon  the  gradual  development  of 
God's  thought  for  mankind,  that  he  prostrated  him- 
self before  the  angel  who  had  been  his  escort  along 
the  magnificent  curves  and  reaches  and  mighty 
periods  of  the  oncoming  future.  Small  wonder  that 
he  did  so :  the  colossal  and  ofttimes  terrible  imagery 
that  loomed  upon  him  was  enough  to  stir  awe  and 
to  uncover  the  springs  of  various  emotions.  Fre- 
quently he  had  to  ask,  "  What  is  this?  "  "  Who  are 
these?  "  and  so  impressed  was  he  by  the  intelligence, 
courtesy,  and  majestic  port  of  his  guide  that  he 
ended  by  worshipping  him. 

It  argues,  first,  that  there  is  in  the  human  heart 
a  capacity  for  being  interested  in  the  unknown, 
the  undiscovered  and  mysterious.  Man  alone,  of 
all  living  creatures,  has  an  instinct  for  the  future, 
and  reaches  out  into  the  future,  and  peoples  it 
with  possibilities  and  hopes.  This  is  one  of  his 
regnant  characteristics,  tO'  transcend  the  present 
and  to  range  through  the  regions  of  the  remote 
and  contingent.  The  idea  of  the  future  shapes  our 
present.     We  picture  it,  project  ourselves  into  it, 


86  WORSHIP    GOD 

wonder  what  it  will  resemble,  provide  against  it  so 
far  as  possible.  That  class  of  mind  called  scientific 
is  busy  not  only  in  the  present,  but  also  in  the  future, 
ransacking  space,  forecasting  the  temperature  of  the 
sun,  the  condition  of  this  globe,  and  the  state  of 
human  society  in  coming  ages. 

Man,  as  a  religious  animal,  could  not  survive  be- 
reft of  this  idea  of  futurity.  It  is  one  of  the  hall- 
marks of  his  dignity  and  greatness :  it  holds  his 
best  expectations,  his  golden  dreams,  his  trembling 
hopes,  all  his  cloudy  Utopias.  Moreover,  it  is  an 
idea  indissolubly  bound  up  with  religion.  All  that 
has  been  transacted  in  that  sphere  —  prophecy, 
miracle,  doctrine  —  patiently  await  the  teeming  fu- 
ture and  its  fulfilments  to  justify  them.  No  other 
creature  is  waiting  for  anything  of  essential,  en- 
during value  save  man.  And  this  capacity  of  being 
lifted  up  into  a  mount  of  vision  by  the  religious 
imagination  and  by  hope  makes  up  the  best  part  of  us ; 
it  gives  scope  and  reason  for  prayer,  for  faith,  for 
fortitude,  for  patience,  for  effort,  for  all  virtues. 
For  the  future  is  full  of  wonder  and  doubt;  its 
speculative  interest  is  immense.  Each  old  and  dying 
year  is  rung  out  and  blown  out  by  trumpets  and  bells, 
because  men  hope  for  something  better  from  the  new 
year  that  succeeds  it.  They  felicitate  themselves 
that  another  milestone  is  passed  in  the  long  journey- 
ing of  the  race  toward  a  more  stable  and  satisfac- 
tory settlement.     The  world's  history,  up  to  date, 


WORSHIP    GOD  87 

does  not  explain  itself,  does  not  show  cause  why  it 
should  have  been,  is  a  fragment,  a  riddle ;  the  future 
holds  the  key  to  all  the  past,  and  the  idea  of  it 
belongs  to  our  necessary  outfit  as  rational  and  reli- 
gious beings. 

This  truth  is  tacitly  implied  in  John's  vision.  A 
strong  angel  takes  him  by  the  hand  and  leads  him 
to  a  point  of  prospect  and  tells  him  to  look  far  down 
toward  the  sunset  of  the  world  under  present  ar- 
rangements. This  implies  a  great  deal;  it  means, 
among  other  things,  that  man  may  be  plucked  out 
of  his  narrow  ruts  and  sordid  aims  and  low  ambi- 
tions and  identify  himself,  at  least  in  a  way,  with 
divine  purpose  and  the  providential  lines  along 
which  God  is  unfolding  His  thought  for  our  race. 
And  you  could  not  compound  a  religion  without 
this.  What  makes  greedy,  mercenary  men  and 
women  look  so  small  except  this :  that  they  are  hud- 
dled into  the  narrow  present  and  live  wholly  in  it, 
have  no  elevation,  no  horizons,  no  idealism. 

Is  it  not  suggestive,  then,  that  John,  the  seer 
of  the  Apocalypse,  was  caught  up  out  of  the  cool, 
prosaic  element  of  time  into  an  ecstasy,  into  a 
cloudless  ether,  into  another  dimension  of  space, 
where  he  beheld  "  illimitable  ellipses  and  para- 
bolas "  —  an  infinite  future  which  no  arithmetic 
can  compute ! 

Observe  again  that  this  is  unmistakably  the  voice 
of  a  Jew.    A  notable  fact  it  is,  that  in  this  valedic- 


88  WORSHIP    GOD 

tory  chapter  of  the  Christian  scriptures  stands  re- 
corded again  the  subHme  truth  of  the  Divine  Unity 
—  that  God  is  One,  and  will  allow  no  assessor,  no 
companion,  but  challenges  an  undivided  homage. 
That  great  pronouncement  made  at  the  outset  of 
Hebrew  history  —  "  Hear,  O  Israel !  the  Lord  our 
God  is  one  Lord,  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thine  heart,  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  might  "  —  is  here  virtually  repeated,  pro- 
claimed afresh,  and  thus  both  Testaments  are 
bound  together  and  unified  as  part  and  parcel  of 
the  same  system.  The  New  completes  the  Old, 
rounds  it  out,  concludes  it,  and  shows  the  goal 
toward  which  it  was  unconsciously  tending. 

John  hears  the  heavenly  angel,  before  whom  he 
had  deferentially  fallen,  forbid  this  demonstration 
and  command  him  to  "  worship  God  " ;  it  is  the 
same  old  truth  delivered  to  the  forefathers  of  his 
race  when,  escaped  from  the  beast-worshipping  mum- 
meries and  magic  of  Egypt,  they  arrived  at  the 
base  of  gaunt,  desolate  Horeb,  and  heard  Jehovah 
thunder  His  unity  and  holiness  and  jealousy  out  of 
the  smoke  and  flame  of  the  mount,  and  bid  them  set 
up  no  image  of  Him  and  set  no  other  God  by  His 
side.  And  running  throughout  the  Hebrew  Bible 
one  hears  this  same  bass-note,  until,  among  its 
last  words,  as  the  Amen  and  fit  Unis  of  these  sol- 
emn documents,  comes  the  ancient  and  prescriptive 
order,    unrepealed,    undiminished,    absolute,    terse, 


WORSHIP    GOD  89 

and  tremendous,  "  Worship  God."  Behold  the 
unity  of  these  Holy  Scriptures,  their  organic  cohe- 
rence and  consistency.  Critics  call  attention  to  dis- 
crepancies, and  there  are  such;  this  is  the  human 
element  in  the  Bible,  and  it  is  to  be  expected.  What- 
ever man  touches  must  bear  the  finger  marks  of  his 
handling;  but  such  as  they  are,  they  do  not  affect 
any  vital  part,  are  concerned  with  dates,  names, 
numbers,  statistical  data,  and  are  few  at  that; 
whereas  the  great  steering  principles,  the  regulative 
ideas,  the  main  propositions  and  definitions  ring 
full  and  clear,  and  tend  to  finer  precision  as  the  Old 
Testament  sets  and  the  New  Testament  sunrise 
draws  on.  So  here,  the  old  commandment  and  great 
primary  postulate  that  underlay  the  whole  Hebrew 
history,  this  fundamental  granite,  crops  up  again 
into  a  noble  peak  in  the  Apocalypse;  it  echoes  over 
the  sea  of  centuries  until  it  breaks  upon  the  ear  of 
a  Christian  Apostle  with  laconic  severity,  "  See  thou 
do  it  not,"  "  Worship  God." 

And  unquestionably  this  moral  attitude  of  the 
Hebrew  people  and  their  monopoly  of  this  tran- 
scendent doctrine  concerning  God  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  phenomena  of  history.  They  did  not 
borrow  it  from  their  neighbors.  No  such  concep- 
tion of  the  upper  powers  was  held  in  Babylonia  or 
in  Phoenicia  or  in  Egypt  or  in  the  Mediterranean 
lands.  The  Hebrews  were  a  Semitic  people,  but 
other  Semites  had  their  Dagon,  Chemosh,  Ashtaroth, 


90  WORSHIP    GOD 

and  Baals.  In  a  world  filled  with  polytheists  and 
mythology  they  worshipped  the  solitary  and  awful 
throne  of  Jehovah ;  they  did  not  always  cleave  loy- 
ally to  Him,  —  this  was  the  indictment  laid  against 
them  by  their  holy  prophets,  —  they  aped  the  shame- 
less and  cruel  customs  and  ferocious  fanaticism  of 
surrounding-  heathen,  and  frequently  lapsed  from 
the  pure  and  simple  faith  delivered  to  them; 
but,  on  the  whole,  what  with  captivities  and  pun- 
ishments and  admonitions,  of  one  kind  and  another, 
they  were  held  quite  firmly  to  their  monotheism, 
and  when  they  had  lost  it  invariably  recovered  it 
again  under  the  lead  of  prophetic  men  of  religious 
genius. 

Starting  with  a  discontented,  lonely  man  who 
left  his  home  and  kindred  in  Chaldea  and  took  his 
journey  toward  the  west  under  the  pressure  of  a 
prophetic  presentiment,  this  strange,  unique  people, 
through  divers  vicissitudes,  and  amid  many  apos- 
tasies and  mighty  shocks  and  tossings  to  and  fro, 
and  tremendous  political  experiences,  came  to  be 
the  trustees  of  a  truth  fundamental  to  religion,  that 
God  is  One,  and  is  the  only  worthy  object  of  worship. 
This  was  the  constructive  truth  or  principle  of  the 
Hebrew  Commonwealth  and  what  they  were  called 
out  to  bear  witness  to  —  God,  a  person,  a  mind,  a 
holy,  just,  benevolent  Being,  jealous  for  righteous- 
ness: this  was  the  blazon  on  their  banners.  Nor 
did  it  perish  with  the  fall  of  the  Jewish  State,  but 


WORSHIP    GOD  91 

broke  its  narrow  prison  and  got  expansion  and  uni- 
versality in  the  Gospel.  Set  up  away  back  in  the 
Arabian  desert,  broad-based  and  massive,  it  still 
dominates  all  the  higher  and  progressive  races.  It 
is  no  longer  a  question  between  one  God  and  many. 
Theism  has  conquered,  and  is  the  reigning  doctrine. 
And  a  battleground  of  the  future  will  lie  hereabout, 
not  between  one  God  and  a  Pantheon  of  them,  but 
to  ascertain,  if  possible,  whether  this  old  Hebrew 
idea  of  one  personal,  presiding,  providential  God  — 
a  supreme  thinker  and  monarch-mind  —  is  authen- 
tic; whether  personality  and  a  holy  will  underlies 
the  universe,  or  sheer,  immeasurable,  incalculable 
force,  working  through  space  and  time,  and  blindly 
choosing  among  all  possible  worlds  the  one  that 
actually  emerges. 

And  what  I  call  attention  to  is  that  John  the  seer, 
as  he  closes  his  revelation,  declares  himself  to  be  a 
Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews  in  thus  re-affirming  this 
great  axiom,  "  Worship  God." 

The  reason  for  this  commandment  is  quite  ob- 
vious in  view  of  the  notorious  tendency  of  mankind 
to  idolatry  in  some  shape.  Men  have  never  yet 
been  able,  in  large  numbers,  to  worship  a  bodiless 
abstraction.  They  require  form,  some  visibility,  in 
order  to  arrest  and  fix  their  thought  concerning 
religious  realities.  All  language  respecting  the 
Supreme  Being  is  analogical  or  metaphorical  lan- 
guage.   It  is  anthropomorphic;  we  cannot  think  of 


92  WORSHIP   GOD 

God  or  speak  of  Him  save  in  terms  borrowed  from 
our  own  personality  and  experience.  By  conse- 
quence the  Bible  itself  does  not  attempt  to  define  or 
portray  Him  in  abstract  terms;  instead  of  that  it 
names  Him  a  King,  a  Father,  a  Judge,  a  Saviour, 
a  Shepherd,  a  Man  of  War,  and  much  else.  Such 
titles  at  once  call  up  a  picture,  a  human  shape,  a 
material  form.  The  men  who  wrote  the  Bible 
were  not  philosophers.  They  dwelt  among  a  people 
who  were  agricultural  and  pastoral,  hence  their  lan- 
guage is  concrete  and  picturesque.  They  do  not 
speak  of  God  as  "  the  stream  of  tendency,"  or  "  the 
All,"  or  **  the  Infinite,"  or  the  "  Unknowable,"  or 
"  the  Idea,"  or  "  the  Absolute."  Believing  Him  to 
be  a  Person,  they  do  not  try  to  name  Him  by  any 
words  that  do  not  express  or  imply  personality. 
And  the  course  they  took  was  eminently  sensible, 
because  it  satisfies  human  craving  and  the  require- 
ments of  the  human  spirit,  always  and  ever*ywhere. 
What  the  mass  of  mankind  want  to  know  about  God 
is  not  that  He  is  the  totality  of  things,  or  the  highest 
category  of  thought,  or  the  soul  of  the  universe,  or 
the  time-spirit,  but  that  He  is  a  Friend,  a  Com- 
forter, a  Judge  who  will  rectify  the  wrong  and  en- 
force the  right,  a  Helper  in  time  of  trouble.  This 
is  a  constitutional  necessity  of  man;  he  must  have 
form,  not  simply  the  airy  idea,  the  mental  concept  — 
this  is  quite  too  tenuous,  filmy,  and  metaphysical 
—  but  in  addition  to  it  something  finite,  familiar. 


WORSHIP    GOD  93 

concrete,  even  coarse  and  earthy,  into  which  he 
may  throw  his  best  and  finest  thought  concerning 
the  highest  things.  And  this  universal  human 
tendency  has  been  exaggerated  and  has  run  into 
the  falsehood  of  extremes ;  it  has  founded  idolatries 
and  bowed  itself  before  graven  images. 

The  sin  of  idolatry,  as  writers  upon  the  compara- 
tive history  of  religions  have  pointed  out,  does  not 
consist  in  the  fact  that  it  helps  man  to  think  about 
God  by  casting  his  religious  ideas  into  a  pictorial 
form,  but  in  the  fact  that  the  dumb  idol  is  a  poor 
shabby  effort  to  represent  God  by  something  that 
does  not  resemble  Him  at  all,  and  has  not  one  fea- 
ture or  trait  by  which  He  would  choose  to  be  known. 
Nevertheless  idolatry,  in  some  phase  of  it,  has 
always  been  rampant  in  the  earth.  Israel  was  con- 
tinually lapsing  into  it;  it  was  the  text  upon  which 
the  prophets  rested  their  trenchant,  tremendous  de- 
nunciations. And  when  you  enter  the  Christian 
Church,  it  is  notorious  that  in  a  large  section  of  it 
the  painted  picture,  the  carved  image,  has  for  ages 
played  an  important  part  in  religious  worship,  testi- 
fying to  this  fundamental  craving  for  some  objec- 
tive, some  visible  shape  which  shall  fix  and  intensify 
the  religious  sentiment.  Even  in  the  nineteenth 
century  an  ingenious  Frenchman  arose  who,  al- 
though he  abjured  all  metaphysics,  and  had  no  place 
for  a  personal  God  in  his  scheme  of  the  universe, 
wound  up  by  recommending  collective  humanity  for 


94  WORSHIP   GOD 

the  vacant  throne.  For  Pantheism,  ancient  and 
modern,  allows  that  the  soul  of  the  universe  attains 
a  certain  self-disclosure  in  the  powerful  talent,  ener- 
getic will,  and  victorious  performance  of  great  men. 
They  are  the  pipes  through  which  it  blows  music. 
The  human  heart  has  not  been  able  to  frame  a  satis- 
fying conception  of  God  without  helping  itself  by 
means  of  the  forms  and  materials  found  in  sensuous 
experience.  How  can  I  get  an  idea  of  God?  How 
can  I  think  of  an  uncaused  Cause?  Who  was  His 
antecedent,  and  if  He  had  none,  how  did  He  come 
to  be?  Fronted  by  such  immense  questions,  man 
has  had  recourse,  time  out  of  mind,  to  some  medi- 
atorial image  to  facilitate  his  thinking  upon  reli- 
gious subjects.  He  has  hung  ecclesiastical  moons 
in  the  firmament,  with  a  view  to  catch  and  reflect 
the  glory  of  the  invisible  God. 

Verily  these  last  words  of  John,  on  the  isle  of 
Patmos,  as  he  closes  the  Christian  revelation,  take 
account  of  a  fundamental  nisus  or  instinct  in  man. 
Hero-worship  has  been  a  salient  trait  of  human 
society.  The  world,  now  and  again,  has  gathered 
around  its  strong  man  some  magnetic,  magnificent 
personality  who  has  been  an  incarnation  of  what 
it  wants.  Admiration,  veneration,  these  great  pri- 
mary emotions  lie  deep  in  the  human  heart,  and  it 
would  not  be  well  could  they  be  plucked  up.  They 
are  our  spontaneous,  untaught  recognition  of  some- 
thing nobler  and  mightier  than  ourselves,  and  of 


WORSHIP    GOD  95 

what  we  would  like  to  be  if  it  were  possible.  Any- 
superior  endowment  or  powerful  talent  strikes  us 
as  extraordinary,  an  influx  from  an  outer  infinite. 
Indeed,  so  lively  is  this  instinct  that  it  is  carried 
to  an  evil  excess,  and  the  world  often  crouches 
before  those  who  have  no  intrinsic  merit.  Def- 
erence and  observance  are  often  paid  to  those  who 
by  the  grace  of  adventitious  circumstances  have 
come  to  power,  irrespective  of  personal  worth. 
And  so,  in  every  age,  the  meanest  of  mankind 
have  been  courted  and  conciliated  by  reason  of 
certain  palpable,  worldly  advantages  that  might 
accrue:  Where  the  carcass  is  there  the  eagles 
gather,  has  often  been  fulfilled  in  more  senses  than 
one.  A  melancholy  farce  and  mournful  inversion 
of  the  true  order  is  this,  and  an  extensive  business 
too,  men  and  women  bowing  in  deferential  attitude 
before  their  tinsel  deities  on  account  of  the  profit 
there  is  in  it,  of  one  kind  or  another. 

Honor  that  in  man  which  is  indubitably  honor- 
able, noble,  godlike.  Ascertain  first  what  pillars 
prop  up  the  gaudy  exteriors  and  theatrical  splendor 
that  rivet  your  eye  and  excite  your  en\'y;  find  out 
whether  the  great  house  is  built  on  rock  or  on  slime 
and  quicksand,  for  it  makes  a  wide  difference,  the 
foundation  of  all  the  pomp  and  pride  you  see,  be- 
cause all  the  glory  of  man  and  all  his  plumage  and 
pageantry  and  surface  glitter  will  tarnish  and  rust 
and  pass  away.     Only  that  can  endure  which  con- 


96  WORSHIP    GOD 

nects  with  the  eternal  processes  of  God's  kingdom; 
the  rest,  the  artificial  distinctions,  all  that  is  titular, 
nominal,  are  transiencies,  temporalities;  the  wind 
passes  over  them  and  they  are  gone.  Worship  God, 
and  look  to  that  in  a  man  that  is  like  unto  God,  that 
will  last,  if  anything  does,  that  has  a  spiritual  value 
and  destiny  in  it  and  is  essentially  worthy. 

Christianity  responds  to  man's  craving  for  out- 
ward form  in  religion  in  the  person  of  Christ.  God, 
having  created  man,  moved  progressively  along  the 
track  of  ages  toward  Self-disclosure,  until  in  the 
Christian  revelation  He  found  a  shape,  a  voice,  and 
a  gracious  attitude.  This  is  the  latest  phase  of  Him- 
self which  God  has  turned  upon  the  world.  If  any 
one  say  that  his  conception  of  God  is  hazy  and 
unsatisfying,  help  for  him  lies  in  the  miracle  of 
Christianity,  in  the  Person,  promises,  cross,  and  res- 
urrection of  Jesus  Christ,  in  his  self-assertion  and 
dogmatic  certainty,  and  positive  assurance  touching 
unseen  and  eternal  things.  Man  may  discover  new 
stars  and  new  laws,  new  modes  of  transportation, 
but  any  further  instalment  in  religion,  anything  ab- 
solutely new  concerning  the  nature  and  disposition 
of  God,  beyond  what  Christ  has  delivered,  is  not 
likely.  All  of  the  infinite  nature  of  God  that  can  be 
expressed  under  the  form  of  time  stands  revealed 
in  Him.  He  is  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  He 
is  the  last  word  in  religion.  His  cross  means  that 
God  will  pardon  your  sins   if  you  forsake  them; 


WORSHIP    GOD  97 

His  empty  grave  means  that  death  cannot  hold  you 
in  its  icy  bondage  if  you  are  in  sympathy  with  Him ; 
His  dogmatic  authoritativeness  and  solemn  prom- 
ises assure  you  of  a  spiritual  body  and  a  blessed 
life  under  unspeakably  higher  conditions.  He  in- 
vites you  to  pray  to  God  through  Him,  He  bids  you 
come  to  Him,  follow  Him,  trust  Him. 


THE   USES   AND    ENDS   OF   LIFE 

What  profit  hath  a  man  of  all  his  labour  which  he  taketh 
under  the  sun  ?  —  EccLESiASTES  i.  3. 

WHETHER  the  so-called  "Preacher  of 
Solomon,"  the  treatise  named  Ecclesi- 
astes,  was  written  by  that  magnificent 
monarch,  or  later  —  some  200  years  B.C.  —  by  a 
Hellenistic  Jew,  that  is,  one  who  had  imbibed  the 
Greek  culture  and  philosophy  —  who  was  the  author 
of  this  remarkable  tract  is,  perhaps,  not  so  im- 
portant as  its  contents.  Its  authorship  has  been  dis- 
puted, but  ifs  meaning  and  tendency  are  indisputable, 
and  that  is  the  main  thing.  The  books  of  Job  and 
Ecclesiastes  both  handle  the  world-problem,  although 
in  a  different  spirit  and  from  a  different  side.  Both 
of  them  practically  agree  in  the  same  conclusion : 
that  our  world  is  a  moral  system,  and  that  its  per- 
plexities and  paradoxes  will  finally  arrive  at  a  solu- 
tion ;  and  more  than  that,  a  theistic  solution,  the 
doctrine  of  a  divine  Providence  and  Purpose.  It 
is  clear  that  the  author  of  this  remarkable  paper  is, 
after  all,  not  at  heart  a  religious  sceptic  or  pessimist, 
notwithstanding  much  that  he  says  which  gives  color 
to  that  theory,  because  he  winds  up  with  the  most 
unimpeachably  orthodox  proposition,  and  falls  back 


THE   USES    AND    ENDS    OF   LIFE    99 

unreservedly  upon  the  faith  of  his  fathers  and  the 
traditional  doctrine  of  Israel.  The  end  of  the  mat- 
ter, he  solemnly  declares,  is  to  fear  God  and  keep  his 
commandments;  this  is  the  whole  of  man.  Who- 
soever does  this  has  achieved  a  successful  career; 
he  need  not  fret  about  anything  else.  At  the  same 
time  the  author  undoubtedly  drops  expressions  and 
announces  feelings  which,  isolated  and  taken  by 
themselves,  have  an  atrabilious  hue,  —  sound  scep- 
tical, cynical,  morose,  —  and  are  only  redeemed  by 
his  final  conclusion  that  all  things  are  in  the  hands 
of  the  God  of  Israel,  who  can  straighten  that  which 
is  crooked  and  supply  that  which  is  wanting. 

One  characteristic  feature  of  this  Jewish  philoso- 
pher is  perfectly  obvious :  he  is  nothing  if  not  frank ; 
his  candor  is  absolute  and  quite  charming;  he  is 
intellectually  honest;  there  is  no  electroplating  or 
whitewashing,  no  concealment  of  inconvenient  facts 
in  his  way  of  handling  them ;  he  has  the  courage  to 
look  them  full  in  the  face  and  to  describe  what  he 
sees ;  he  does  not  attempt  to  deny  that  there  is  a 
great  deal  in  life,  in  the  ordering  of  the  world,  and 
in  human  experience,  which  it  is  hard  to  reconcile 
with  the  doctrine  of  a  holy  God  and  an  overruling 
Providence.  The  man's  honesty  and  clarity  of  vision 
are  conspicuous :  he  will  say  what  he  sees ;  he  will 
report  the  situation  as  it  stands;  he  will  not  twist 
or  wrest  the  facts  to  support  any  preconceived  view 
or  inherited  prejudice  or  theological  position.    This 


100     THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE 

is  a  great  and  noble  trait;  the  faculty  of  seeing 
things  as  they  are  is  a  rare  faculty;  the  courage  to 
confess  an  inconvenient  or  unpalatable  truth  is  a 
high  courage,  —  few  possess  it.  Man  walketh  in  a 
vain  show;  we  are  all  busy  trying  to  deceive  our- 
selves and  others,  and  to  make  the  worse  appear  the 
better;  intellectual  conscientiousness  is  a  cardinal 
virtue  of  which  there  is  a  decided  dearth  in  this  world. 
But  the  Preacher  of  Solomon  has  it;  it  stands  out 
upon  every  page  of  his  dissertation.  He  plunges  his 
probe  into  the  festering  misery  of  the  world,  he 
strikes  bottom,  he  takes  off  the  lids  and  coverings; 
he  tears  away  all  masks  and  disguises;  he  calls 
human  life  vanity,  vexation,  a  contradiction,  a 
dream ;  he  does  not  know  what  to  make  of  it,  does 
not  attempt  to  justify  the  ways  of  God  with  man, 
has  no  theodicy  or  explanation  telling  why  things 
are  as  they  are;  he  simply  announces  the  fact,  and 
then  over  against  it  his  personal  faith  in  the  living 
God  and  in  the  moral  order  of  the  universe. 

Evidently,  then,  Ecclesiastes  is  a  record  of  per- 
sonal experience,  either  Solomon's  or  that  of  some 
other  deep  Hebrew  thinker  speaking  under  cover  of 
his  name  touching  the  standing  problems  of  human 
experience.  Such  a  book  has  every  right  to  belong 
to  the  canon  of  Scripture,  because  it  shows  that  a 
man  can  see  and  acknowledge  the  very  worst  that 
can  be  said  about  this  world  without  losing  his 
faith  in  its  divine  origin  and  moral  tendency  and 


THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE     loi 

final  vindication  as  a  thought  of  God  and  as  a 
sphere  for  the  display  of  God's  attributes  and  for 
the  unfolding  of  His  purpose. 

Christian  faith  requires  just  such  a  support  as 
this,  —  the  spectacle  of  a  serious,  meditative  man 
who  can  freely  concede  the  whole  truth  and  that  the 
situation  is  deplorable;  history  a  muddle,  experi- 
ence a  rushlight,  the  world  a  mad  imbroglio,  human 
happiness  a  mirage,  a  mockery,  the  whole  scene  a 
staggering  state  of  things,  a  place  of  awful  glooms 
and  blind  uproar  and  immense  pathos,  a  wild,  melan- 
choly wail  running  through  the  whole  creation :  I 
say  the  Christian  heart  needs  and  welcomes  just  such 
a  good  confession  as  this  of  Solomon's  preacher, 
that,  desperately  bad  as  the  world  is,  and  dark, 
enigmatical  as  are  the  problems  it  raises,  there  is 
nothing  in  it  that  makes  God  an  inconceivable  idea 
or  reduces  religion  to  absurdity.  On  the  contrary, 
the  facts,  the  symptoms,  point  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion as  their  only  solution;  the  whole  phenomenon 
is  a  shoreless  mystery,  if  there  be  no  throne  of  God, 
no  purpose  of  God,  no  holy,  inflexible  will  of  God, 
no  moral  government  over  man  and  his  world. 

This  is  the  conclusion  of  Ecclesiastes,  and  there 
are  few  persons  of  any  capacity  for  serious  reflection 
who  do  not  in  the  course  of  a  lifetime  stir  these 
supreme  questions  concerning  God,  His  intentions, 
the  eventual  destiny  of  the  earth  and  man,  the  uni- 
verse and  how  and  why  it  came  into  being.     One 


102     THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE 

who  does  not  sometimes  revolve  such  thoughts  is 
either  more  or  less  than  a  man.  This  literary  frag- 
ment utters  the  wild  cry  of  the  human  heart,  it 
voices  what  all  feel,  it  writes  transitoriness,  dis- 
content, disappointment  over  the  human  lot;  while 
at  the  same  time  it  inserts  at  the  end  a  saving  clause, 
a  generous  codicil,  that  somewhat  relieves  the  situa- 
tion and  expounds  the  mystery  of  life  and  time,  in 
so  far  as  they  lend  themselves  to  explanation.  All 
is  vanity,  confusion,  a  whirlpool,  cries  this  stern, 
honest  thinker,  but  after  all,  and  under  all,  and  above 
all,  there  is  a  righteous  God  and  a  holy  command- 
ment, and  herein  lies  man's  hope  and  solace  and 
safety. 

Surely  this  was  a  glorious  gospel  for  that  Old 
Testament  world;  indeed,  it  is  all  that  we  have 
under  Christianity,  save  that  the  truth  has  been 
personalized,  incorporated  in  a  Person,  authorita- 
tively affirmed  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  came 
down  into  human  life,  passed  through  its  glooms 
and  storms,  bore  the  stress  and  strain  of  its  anxieties 
and  sorrows,  had  abundant  experience  of  its  hollow 
sounding  vanities  and  empty  promises  and  idle 
shows,  and  showed  the  way  out  of  them  into  a  real 
life  in  harmony  with  God. 

The  question  propounded  in  the  text  sounds  the 
keynote  of  the  whole  performance  —  "  What  profit 
hath  man  of  all  his  labor  which  he  taketh  under 
the  sun?"    The  question  answers  itself;   it  is  as  if 


THE  USES  AND  ENDS   OF  LIFE     103 

the  writer  had  said,  There  is  nothing  in  hfe  that  is 
worth  the  trouble  it  takes  to  get  it.  King  Solomon, 
the  son  of  David  and  Bathsheba,  in  whom  the  He- 
brew monarchy  touched  its  zenith  of  prosperity  and 
expansion,  is  here  represented  as  looking  around 
upon  the  splendid  material  civilization  he  had  built 
up  and  pronouncing  it  practically  a  failure,  a  dis- 
appointment. Fie  had  enjoyed  admirable  facilities 
for  experimenting  upon  all  subjects  of  curiosity 
and  research ;  within  arm's  length  lay  all  the  com- 
forts, elegancies,  luxuries  to  be  had  in  his  time.  His 
resources  flowed  in  affluent  streams  from  all  quar- 
ters ;  he  had  concluded  treaties  with  foreign  powers 
which  opened  up  untold  wealth ;  his  pacific  policy 
gave  him  access  to  exotic  treasures  and  foreign  im- 
ports, and  brought  him  acquainted  with  seafaring 
peoples  who  landed  rich  stuffs  and  costly  wares  on 
his  shores. 

Solomon  was  cosmopolitan,  aggresive ;  he  bought 
of  all  traders,  asking  not  so  much  about  their  faith, 
but  rather  what  they  had  to  sell ;  he  was  a  deviation 
from  the  typical  son  of  Israel ;  he  loved  art,  was  a 
botanist,  a  natural  philosopher,  a  thinker,  a  great 
executive,  a  sort  of  universal  man ;  there  was  nothing 
narrow,  reserved,  unsocial  about  him.  Besides  this, 
domestic  faction  and  foreign  war  were  happily  ab- 
sent from  his  realm,  so  that  he  had  leisure  for  study, 
observation,  and  experiment.  No  crash  of  trumpet 
nor  clash  and  grinding  of  lances  broke  in  upon  his 


I04     THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE 

meditations.  Peace  was  in  the  air;  the  great  king 
had  time  to  think  and  to  make  up  his  mind  about 
many  things. 

And  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes  pictures  him  as 
casting  about  for  some  solid  grounds  of  happiness 
and  contentment  outside  of  God  and  rehgion.  This 
appears  to  be  the  thesis,  the  subject  of  the  book, 
whether  the  human  heart  can  be  satisfied  away  from 
God,  whether  there  is  enough  of  good  in  the  world 
to  satisfy  human  craving.  The  magnificent  Solo- 
mon sits  down  to  reflect  upon  that  proposition  and 
looks  around  upon  his  achievements;  on  every  side 
rise  the  monuments  of  his  industry,  enterprise,  and 
wealth;  his  palace  and  grounds,  his  landscape  gar- 
dening, his  vineyards  and  orchards,  his  fountains 
and  lakes  with  their  soft  cool  murmur,  his  orchestras 
and  singers,  his  cups  of  gold  and  bowls  of  Sidonian 
work,  his  pearls,  and  peacocks  and  parrots,  his 
horses,  his  chairs  of  ivory  and  beds  of  ease,  all  the 
pomp  and  parade  of  sceptred  state  amid  which  he 
lived, — he  takes  an  inventory  of  all  these  advantages 
and  thereupon  falls  into  a  soliloquy :  "  What  is  the 
use  of  it  all !  What  profit  is  there  in  it !  I  have 
been  at  immense  expense,  yet  how  soon  I  weary  of 
all  this  glitter  and  spectacle !  "  Such  is  the  king's 
honest  confession  after  a  survey  of  his  possessions. 

What  shall  we  say  then  of  his  mood  of  mind  and 
of  his  bitter  cry  of  complaint  ?  is  it  not  worth  while 
to  be  rich,  famous,  powerful,  comfortable,  to  get  all 


THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE     105 

the  good  that  is  going  and  to  set  one's  self  in  circum- 
stances of  ease  and  plenty?  This  is  certainly  the 
generally  accepted  doctrine.  What  is  the  matter  with 
it ;  is  it  false  or  true  ?  Now,  in  this  connection,  one 
or  two  considerations  are  pertinent  and  should  be 
taken  account  of.  Thus,  there  is  a  cunning  property 
in  our  nature  that  is  self-acting  and  carries  its  own 
adjustments  and  compensations.  It  resembles  cir- 
culation, respiration,  nutrition,  and  other  bodily  ac- 
tions ;  it  goes  forward  whether  we  will  or  not.  The 
formula  for  this  principle  is,  carry  nothing  too  far, 
because  there  is  a  reaction  which  sets  in  upon  ex- 
cess; there  is  a  golden  mean,  there  is  a  meridian, 
on  either  side  of  which  lies  danger.  God,  who 
made  man,  gave  him  a  faculty  of  moral  judgment 
and  armed  it  with  avenging  penalties  which  execute 
themselves  in  discontent,  satiety,  misanthropy,  dis- 
gust, upon  transgressors;  whosoever  overleaps  the 
barriers  of  sobriety,  moderation,  reason,  suffers  a 
recoil.  Possibly  it  was  the  action  of  this  law  that 
produced  Solomon's  unhappiness  in  the  midst  of 
his  secular  greatness.  It  may  be  that  he  had  made 
himself  more  comfortable  than  the  Creator  intends 
men  to  be  in  this  world;  perhaps  he  had  heaped 
up  superfluities,  ingenious  refinements,  witty  inven- 
tions, novel  exquisite  enjoyments,  artificial  appli- 
ances, things  that  after  awhile  fall  flat  and  cease  to 
please.  The  Israelites  in  the  desert  grew  as  sick  of 
the  quails  as  they  had  been  of  the  manna. 


io6     THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE 

There  is  nothing  on  earth  that  will  not  suffer  by 
overlooking  the  law  of  proportion,  of  discretion  and 
moderation.  This  is  especially  true  of  man's  ap- 
petites ;  they  are  proverbially  short  lived  and  easily 
glutted.  Whosoever  pushes  beyond  a  fixed  bound- 
ary line  pays  toll  in  asthenic  conditions  and  physi- 
ological bankruptcy;  there  are  ratios  in  this  world, 
and  definite  proportions  in  which  things  mix  and 
cohere. 

Now  here,  in  this  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  lives  and 
luxuriates  a  royal  man  who  mayhap  overlooked  this 
important  distinction :  he  set  out  deliberately  and 
designedly  to  be  happy,  to  make  life  a  success,  and 
at  the  end  he  awoke  to  discover  that  he  had  taken 
the  wrong  road.  He  says  within  himself,  "  I  am 
going  to  have  a  high  time,  I  intend  to  create  a  set 
of  conditions  favorable  in  an  unsurpassed  degree  to 
personal  comfort  and  gratification.  I  shall  make 
myself  the  envy  of  Hiram,  and  Pharaoh,  of  Egypt 
and  Tyre.  The  Phoenicians  shall  carry  my  fame  to 
the  isles  of  the  sea  and  to  distant  shores.  Whatever 
I  want,  that  I  will  get."  Probably  it  was  at  this 
point  that  the  king  failed;  in  place  of  making  self 
subordinate,  he  made  it  supreme.  Undoubtedly 
there  are  prizes  which  one  must  work  for,  if  one 
would  win  them;  there  are  summits  of  excellence 
accessible  only  to  him  who  puts  heart  and  purpose 
into  them.  You  may  make  knowledge,  along  any 
line,  a  conscious  and  avowed  aim,  and  some  day  find 


THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE     107 

yourself  acclaimed  a  scholar,  decorated  with  aca- 
demic titles  and  crowned  with  applause.  You  may- 
make  money,  and  the  power  it  carries  and  confers, 
a  confessed  object  in  life,  and  with  fair  winds,  a  cool 
head,  and  indomitable  industry,  attain  success.  Or 
you  may  throw  your  energies  into  political  ambition, 
and  by  native  talent  and  prudent  management,  by 
the  study  of  finance,  of  political  economy,  of  the  laws 
and  history  of  nations,  you  may  rise  to  the  stature 
of  a  statesman,  a  diplomatist,  a  premier,  dictate 
terms  and  treaties  and  wield  enormous  influence 
in  your  time :  there  are  goods  which  one  must  seek 
if  one  would  find  them.  But  it  is  a  singular  cir- 
cumstance that  the  most  desirable  of  all,  —  happi- 
ness, contentment,  mental  repose  and  serenity,  is 
not  of  this  kind;  it  will  almost  certainly  elude  and 
mock  him  who  sets  it  up  as  a  confessed  end  in  life. 
Because,  properly  defined,  it  is  not  a  commodity,  an 
entity  that  I  can  grasp  and  hold  fast;  it  is  an  airy, 
impalpable  something  that  arrives  casually  bound  up 
with  some  action  or  condition.  Men  are  making  that 
painful  discovery  every  day,  and  have  been  since  the 
foundation  of  the  world.  So  that  when  one  says, 
like  Solomon  in  Ecclesiastes,  "  I  will  build  houses 
and  buy  cattle,  and  plant  vineyards  and  procure  mu- 
sical instruments,  and  provide  luxuries  and  arrange 
everything  for  a  happy  sensational  effect,  and  at  the 
end  I  shall  be  a  happy  man,"  he  misapprehends  the 
nature  of  the  thing;    it  is  a  false  philosophy  that 


io8     THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE 

makes  it  an  end  in  itself.  But  if  one  go  forth  deter- 
mined to  be  useful,  dutiful,  obedient,  loyal  to  the  best 
he  knows,  he  will  not  only  succeed  in  this,  but  col- 
laterally he  will  derive  more  solid  gratification  and 
a  deeper  contentment  than  if  he  had  begun  on  the 
lower,  selfish  plane  of  personal  indulgence.  There 
is  an  ingenious  constitution  of  things  whereby  men 
sometimes  receive  what  they  do  not  expect,  and  do 
not  distinctly  w^ork  for.  Sometimes  it  is  better  not 
to  take  deliberate  aim  at  the  particular  thing  you 
want ;  draw  your  bow  higher,  aim  at  the  stars.  Let 
one  conduct  his  life  under  the  idea  and  intention  of 
being  useful,  of  serving  his  generation,  of  perfecting 
himself  in  the  highest  elements  of  manhood,  and 
becoming  increasingly  a  partaker  of  the  divine  na- 
ture, and  he  will  reap  more  solid  satisfaction  than 
if  he  strike  for  a  material  good.  Conversely,  let 
one  make  comfortable  accommodations  —  place, 
pelf,  power,  pleasant  sensations  —  the  controlling 
consideration,  the  avowed  purpose  of  life,  and  it 
will  not  be  surprising  if  he  is  disappointed. 

Happiness  is  derivative,  incidental,  a  concomitant 
of  high  and  noble  activities.  And  when  you  see 
men  and  women  sitting  jaded,  sad,  and  lonesome, 
even  in  the  midst  of  affluent  resources  and  of  much 
magnificence,  the  probability  is  that  they  have  fal- 
len into  this  false  philosophy  and  are  resting  upon 
material  good  as  a  good  in  itself,  as  a  finality; 
whereas  our  manifest  destiny  is  progress,  growth, 


THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE     109 

action,  service.  Sit  down  and  exclaim,  "  Now  I  am 
going  to  have  a  good  time,"  and  you  have  probably 
killed  it.  Self-forgetfulness,  self-surrender,  these  are 
the  secrets  of  a  successful  life;  these  are  the  avenues 
along  which  man's  true  enjoyments  course.  This 
was  the  wonderful  secret  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth :  "  The 
Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many." 

Life  becomes  significant  only  by  virtue  of  its  rela- 
tion to  eternal  reals.  Apart  from  these,  there  is  no 
profit  in  man's  labor  and  worry,  or  in  all  the  toil 
and  tragedy  of  this  transitory  world.  So  long  as  men 
look  exclusively  upon  temporalities,  secular  great- 
ness, the  pomp  and  spectacle  of  glorious  life,  they 
see  these  "fade  sunset  after  sunset"  ;  nothing  abides, 
nothing  pays ;  there  is  little  or  no  profit  in  it  all. 
While  he  who  has  the  supernatural  sense,  something 
of  prophetic  fire,  a  lively  faith,  perceives  that  ex- 
ternals, howsoever  glittering  and  gorgeous,  are  not 
the  chief  values,  are  essentially  ephemeral;  that 
alone  is  profitable  to  any  child  of  man  which  aug- 
ments his  being,  increases  his  mental  and  moral 
power,  enriches  his  nature,  gives  him  breadth,  se- 
renity of  soul,  similitude  to  God.  You  must  live 
for  ideas  and  interests  that  shall  survive  you. 

A  man  needs  to  relate  his  life  to  something  that 
has  a  future,  that  has  within  it  an  echo  of  eternity; 
he  must  make  it  stand  for  something  noble,  benefi- 
cent, world-saving,  Christ-like,  if  he  would  rescue 


no     THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE 

it  from  barrenness  and  vanity.  And  this,  at  bottom, 
I  conclude  is  the  meaning  of  the  text  and  of  the  whole 
discussion  named  Ecclesiastes.  It  does  not  mean 
that  God  launched  this  planet  for  nothing  and  that 
what  is  transacted  here  is  of  no  account  in  the  sum 
of  being;  it  rather  means  this,  that  the  world  is  the 
riddle  of  the  Sphinx,  an  insoluble  problem  without 
God  and  religion.  It  cannot  give  a  satisfactory- 
account  of  itself,  unless  man  is  capable  of  immortal- 
ity, unless  he  may  become  divine,  sinless,  a  partaker 
of  Christ's  resurrection.  If  this  be  not  possible, 
then  the  progress  of  industries,  the  growth  of  ma- 
terial civilization,  this  whole  cosmic  economy,  the 
earth  and  all  that  it  inhabits,  is  little  better  than  a 
wreath  of  smoke,  a  sheet  of  spray.  This  is  the  only 
consideration  that  can  put  meaning  into  life,  that 
the  universe,  or  that  section  of  it  which  we  know, 
is  a  parable,  a  prophecy.  Have  you  any  theory 
about  it?  What  is  your  view  concerning  the  uses 
and  ends  of  life?  Are  you  tired  of  it,  have  you 
got  enough,  are  you  peevish,  discontented,  unhappy, 
baffled,  hopeless?  does  it  seem  to  you  not  worth 
living?  does  it  seem  irredeemably  petty,  an  empty 
chase  after  shadows,  pouring  water  through  a  sieve, 
a  wearisome,  profitless  process? 

This  can  hardly  fail  to  be  the  conclusion  of  one 
who  lives  on  the  surface  of  things  or  who  posits  the 
essence  of  life  in  any  outward  fortune.  We  must 
strike  in  below  appearances  and  the  outer  crust ;  we 


THE  USES  AND  ENDS  OF  LIFE     in 

must  detect  a  divine  tendency  in  the  world ;  we  must 
catch  an  echo  of  the  eternal  music;  we  must  get 
faith  in  God  and  in  the  possibilities  of  the  soul ;  we 
must  use  the  world  not  as  a  place  to  achieve  a  pros- 
perous vulgarity,  but  an  immortal  hope,  a  moral 
will. 


A   GREAT   CERTAINTY 

For  we  know  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them 
that  love  Cod.  —  Romans  viii.  28. 

NOTWITHSTANDING  the  hardships  and 
perils  of  his  Apostolate,  Paul  takes  a 
cheerful  view  of  his  life.  More  than 
once  he  remarks,  for  substance,  that  he  had  learned 
the  secret  of  contentment.  Although  he  had  con- 
stantly on  his  mind  something  calculated  to  create 
anxiety,  yet  by  the  strength  of  his  doctrine  or  phi- 
losophy of  life  he  was  able  to  rise  superior  to  it  and 
look  upon  it  as  an  ephemeral,  transient  circumstance. 
Very  true,  he  was  poor  and  the  member  of  a  de- 
spised sect  exposed  to  persecution  and  violence; 
moreover,  he  was  burdened  with  the  care  of  the 
feeble  Christian  congregations  he  had  planted  in 
the  Roman  Empire;  his  days,  in  short,  were  full 
of  toil  and  danger,  yet  he  makes  no  complaint  as 
if  his  lot  were  hard  and  he  would  like  to  exchange  it 
for  some  other.  St.  Paul  narrates  his  shipwrecks, 
scourgings,  stonings,  imprisonments,  narrow  es- 
capes, but  in  so  doing  he  is  careful  not  to  accuse 
Divine  Providence  of  handling  him  roughly,  or  of 
imposing  any  gratuitous,  unnecessary  inconvenience 
upon  him;    he  makes  no  injurious  reflections  upon 


A    GREAT    CERTAINTY  113 

the  moral  government  of  God.  And  the  text  gives 
the  reason  why,  and  states  in  condensed  form  his 
rationale  of  Hfe  —  both  of  its  good  and  evih  His 
explanation  is,  that  the  earthly  life  is  not  ultimate; 
what  we  see  happening  here  is  intermediate,  instru- 
mental, incidental,  not  final,  not  an  end  in  itself,  but 
a  means  to  something  beyond.  This  is  notably  true, 
he  observes,  of  a  certain  class  of  persons  whom  he 
describes  as  those  who  love  God.  For  such,  all 
occurrences,  of  every  kind,  shall  eventually  turn  out 
to  be  good  and  wholesome,  and  shall  tend  to  the 
most  desirable  results.  The  idea  obviously  is,  that 
life  and  its  contents  and  histories  is  so  arranged 
by  a  superintending  mind  that  they  who  have  re- 
ligious faith  in  its  Author  and  confidence  in  His 
management  shall  not  suffer  in  the  outcome  of 
things;  this  is  important,  if  true.  Moreover,  it 
must  have  been  good  news  to  the  Roman  Christians. 
They  were  surrounded  by  the  pomp  and  magnificence 
of  the  great  capital,  and  had,  for  the  more  part,  no 
lot  in  its  wealth,  elegance,  or  honors ;  some  of  them 
served  in  one  capacity  or  other  in  Caesar's  house- 
hold ;  but  the  body  of  them  were  probably  obscure, 
hard-working  people,  who  had  little  to  expect  in 
this  world.  Such  would  likely  be  tempted,  occasion- 
ally, to  think  that  the  Christian  profession  stood 
in  one's  way,  was  a  bar  to  some  promotion,  or  a 
stigma  which  disrated  one,  that  it  was,  in  a  word, 
the  wrong  side  to  take,  the  losing  side.     Against 

8 


114  A    GREAT    CERTAINTY 

such  a  natural  notion  as  that  Apostle  Paul  aims  his 
refutation.  He  admits  that  the  Christians  have  a 
rough  passage,  the  head  winds  of  popular  favor  and 
patronage  set  against  them.  The  affluent  splendor 
of  heathen  Rome  was  not  a  highly  congenial  en- 
vironment for  the  gospel  that  came  out  of  despised 
Galilee.  But  for  all  that  he  alleges  that  human  life 
cannot  be  explained  by  surface  symptoms  and  the 
apparent  drift  of  things;  you  cannot  measure  the 
universe  by  a  foot-rule;  and  the  eternal  processes 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  are  not  to  be  calculated 
by  figures  on  a  dial.  The  secret  of  this  scene  amid 
which  we  live  lies  deep;  it  is  a  vast,  unsounded  sea 
we  are  embarked  on.  You  cannot  judge  of  reality 
from  what  appears ;  storms  may  vex  the  surface,  but 
below  there  is  a  depth  where  storms  do  not  beat  and 
tides  do  not  roll. 

Virtually  this  is  Paul's  argument  with  the  Roman 
Christians,  to  hold  them  up  out  of  despondency. 
Observe,  also,  his  confident  tone :  "  We  know  that 
all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love 
God."  He  does  not  call  his  confidence  in  this  great 
truth  an  expectation  or  probability,  he  calls  it  knowl- 
edge. Knowledge  is  presentative,  immediate,  and 
results  from  several  sources.  You  can  know  a  fact 
intuitively,  such  as  that  two  straight  lines,  having 
no  inclination  toward  each  other,  cannot  intersect. 
Or  you  can  know  it  upon  premises  of  argument  and 
deduction,  as  when  a  boy  at  school  assents  to  a  dem- 


A   GREAT    CERTAINTY  115 

onstration  in  Euclid.  Or  you  may  be  said  to  know 
a  fact  by  reason  of  confidence  in  the  authority  or 
veracity  of  others;  behef  in  such  a  case  becomes 
knowledge  for  all  practical  purposes.  Again,  knowl- 
edge may  be  said  to  arise  out  of  certain  rational 
principles  and  reasoned  grounds  :  this  was  the  origin 
of  St.  Paul's  sanguine  optimism.  His  conclusion 
was  not  a  deliverance  of  any  of  the  five  organic 
senses;  it  was  not  necessarily  supernatural  inspira- 
tion; it  was  an  inference  from  a  set  of  rational 
premises.  If  there  be  a  personal  God,  who  loves 
rectitude,  purity,  goodness,  then  it  follows  that  they 
also  who  love  and  follow  these  things  shall  find  their 
account  in  them.  This  is  surely  a  valid  piece  of 
reasoning,  that  God  will  not  disown  or  ignore  in  the 
creature  qualities  which  constitute  His  own  essence 
and  glory.  Such  moral  inconsistency  is  not  con- 
ceivable in  a  being  worthy  of  reverence  and  wor- 
ship. Furthermore,  it  is  a  blessed  fact  that  it  is 
possible  for  man,  living  in  this  world,  to  know  some 
things,  some  laws  and  sequences,  which  can  be  relied 
on  for  comfort  and  guidance.  Of  course,  situated 
as  man  is,  he  is  obliged  to  assume  a  few  fundamental 
positions  and  premises,  but  if  these  be  granted,  very 
copious  and  remunerative  results  follow.  There 
are  first  principles  of  thought  which  we  must  take 
without  proof  and  as  foundation  work.  We  must 
put  faith  in  our  own  mental  structure,  we  must  be- 
lieve that  our  nature  is  not  a  lie.    We  must  hold  by 


ii6  A    GREAT    CERTAINTY 

it  that  two  and  two  are  always  and  everywhere  four, 
and  that  if  there  be  a  world  where  they  make  three 
or  five,  we  cannot  with  our  present  outfit  of  faculties 
conceive  what  kind  of  world  that  can  be.  We  must 
allow  some  truths  to  shine  in  their  own  self-evidence, 
we  must  rely  upon  our  healthy  unsophisticated  moral 
instincts.  We  must  accept  probability,  not  scien- 
tific but  moral  certainty,  in  many,  perhaps  in  most 
cases.  It  is  notable  that  as  we  approach  the  great 
leading  principles  and  rules  of  life  and  conduct  and 
the  fundamental  thinking  that  underlies  our  action 
the  mind  is  thrown  more  upon  its  own  native  orig- 
inal powers  and  capacities;  it  perceives,  it  seizes 
intuitively,  in  place  of  calling  for  labored  proofs  and 
long  deductions.  For  instance,  take  man  himself, 
and  what  is  good  for  him,  wdiat  he  ought  to  be,  what 
type  of  character  he  ought  to  elaborate,  how  he 
ought  to  live  and  act ;  or,  take  the  idea  of  God,  the 
Supreme  Being,  His  existence,  disposition,  and 
attributes;  or,  take  nature,  the  external  world  of 
phenomena,  its  reality,  its  uses,  value  for  man; 
take  these  large  general  conceptions  that  underlie 
all  our  life,  and  the  nearer  we  approach  them  the 
more  evident  it  becomes  that  if  they  are  appre- 
hended at  all  it  must  be  by  the  quick  instinct  and 
native  affinity  of  the  mind  for  them. 

As  St.  Paul  says  concerning  the  fate  of  godlike 
men  in  this  evil  world,  we  know  they  are  safe.  Well, 
how  do  we  know  it?    by  mathematics?   by  experi- 


A    GREAT    CERTAINTY  117 

ment?  by  testimony?  by  personal  observation?  No, 
not  in  any  of  these  ways,  but  rather  by  a  feehng 
that  it  must  be  so;  by  a  spontaneous,  irresistible 
conviction  that,  if  God  be  holy,  just,  and  good, 
they  who  share  His  divine  qualities  shall  also  share 
His  contentment  and  blessedness.  It  is  often  ob- 
jected against  religious  ideas  and  beliefs  that  when 
their  champions  cannot  prove  them,  they  fly  to  this 
refuge  and  say  that  they  feel  them  to  be  true,  and  so 
make  an  end  of  controversy.  But  the  same  law 
obtains  in  secular  life.  Men  are  largely  controlled 
and  determined  by  an  inward  feeling,  surmise,  pre- 
sentiment of  which  they  can  give  no  account,  but 
which  is  just  as  effectual  as  if  it  were  buttressed 
by  strong  proofs  and  confirmations.  Every  day 
you  decide  questions,  assent  or  dissent,  believe  or 
doubt,  not  because  of  any  demonstration,  not  for 
any  plain,  articulate  reason,  but  simply  on  the 
ground  of  some  dim,  vague  impression  on  the 
mind,  some  mental  or  moral  instinct  or  native  bias 
or  impulse  that  rises  at  once  and  asserts  itself  on 
the  first  flush  of  the  affair.  Every  human  life  is 
largely  directed  by  a  mass  of  inarticulate,  inorganic 
feeling  that  can  give  no  account  of  itself,  may  even 
seem  unreasonable  and  absurd,  but  which  is,  never- 
theless, potent  and  decisive.  This  is  notably  true 
of  the  ideas  that  enter  into  supernatural  religion  — 
God,  angels,  eternal  life,  the  future  history  of  the 
soul,  the  value  of  faith,  repentance,  obedience,  un- 


ii8  A    GREAT    CERTAINTY 

selfishness,  and  many  more.  These,  confessedly, 
cannot  be  established  by  rigorous  proofs;  by  con- 
sequence we  are  thrown  back  to  a  considerable 
degree  upon  the  native  furniture  of  the  mind,  the 
prophetic  fore-feeling  in  the  soul,  the  moral  proba- 
bilities of  the  case.  Religion,  handling  ideas  which 
transcend  material  experience,  rests  in  reasons  and 
arguments  which  often  would  not  stand  in  a  court 
of  logic  but  are  for  practical  purposes  quite  satis- 
fying. This  is  what  is  meant  when  man  is  defined 
to  be  a  religious  animal,  —  that  is,  one  capable  of 
religion.  In  his  make-up,  lodged  in  his  constitu- 
tion, an  original  endowment,  is  this  affinity  or  appe- 
tency after  the  ideal  and  eternal ;  it  is  in  the  wood, 
in  the  very  fibre  of  him,  this  faculty  of  ponder- 
ing upon  spiritual  conceptions.  Forevermore  man 
stands  before  this  Sphinx,  and  though  he  cannot 
answer  the  questions  to  which  religion  gives  rise,  he 
feels  that  there  must  be  some  answering  fact  in  the 
unseen  universe  for  the  questionings  and  misgivings 
of  the  creature.  Not  because  he  has  faith  in  suffi- 
cient force  to  remove  mountains,  or  incorruptible 
virtue  or  a  moral  will,  not  because  he  can  prove 
God  and  immortality,  but  because  at  the  base  of  him, 
and  as  one  of  the  leading  chords  in  his  harp  of  life, 
lurks  this  religious  feeling  or  instinct,  this  brooding 
sense  of  the  mystical  and  solemn,  of  the  transcend- 
ent and  eternal,  which  embodies  and  expresses  itself 
in  his  temples  and  priesthoods,  in  his  litanies  and 


A    GREAT    CERTAINTY  119 

psalms  and  anthems  of  praise.  Vast  possibilities 
loom  on  his  mental  horizon  and  jfire  his  imagination, 
and  this  is  the  radical  fact  about  man,  and  the  one 
which  accounts  for  his  creeds  and  rituals. 

And  so,  when  St.  Paul  says,  "  We  know  that  all 
things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love 
God,"  it  was,  I  suppose,  a  persuasion  or  conclusion 
to  which  he  was  compelled  by  his  religious  feeling 
rising  to  the  degree  and  temperature  of  certainty. 
If  God  be  such  an  one  as  we  are  obliged  to  believe 
Him  to  be,  He  will  surely  take  care  of  His  own. 
This  is  the  argument.  St.  Paul  frequently  uses 
this  formula  —  "  We  know."  Thus  he  says,  "  We 
know  that  the  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travail- 
eth  in  pain,  —  waiting  for  the  adoption,  to  wit,  the 
redemption  of  our  body."  Again,  "  We  know  that 
if  our  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  were  dis- 
solved, we  have  a  building  of  God,  an  house  not 
made  with  hands."  Again,  "  I  know  whom  I  have 
believed,  and  am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep 
that  which  I  have  committed  unto  him."  He  calls 
these  high  matters  subjects  of  knowledge,  but  in  the 
last  analysis  it  was  likely  faith,  an  inward  persuasion 
carried  clear  up  to  the  threshold  of  certainty.  More- 
over, this  spiritual  instinct,  inward  witness,  secret 
inspiration  which  enabled  St.  Paul  to  declare  "  we 
know  "  in  relation  to  invisible,  eternal  things,  is  a 
highly  important  possession  and  a  rare  endowment. 
There   is   too   much   conjecture   and   doubt   in   the 


I20  A    GREAT    CERTAINTY 

matter  of  religious  truths  and  too  little  conviction 
and  certitude.  We  do  not  get  joy  out  of  religion 
because  we  are  not  quite  sure  enough  about  it. 
Most  Christians  need  that  private  assurance  which 
with  Paul  was  equivalent  to  knowledge.  This  is  a 
great  defect  in  current  religious  experience;  we 
grope  in  a  fog,  we  set  foot  on  a  void,  we  do  not  feel 
solidity  and  resistance  beneath  our  tread.  Only  elect 
souls  here  and  there  climb  out  of  the  misty  air  and 
low  valleys  where  the  myrtles  grow,  toward  the 
sunny  summits  and  wide  prospects  of  unclouded 
vision. 

Consider,  further,  the  substance  of  the  proposi- 
tion itself,  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
the  children  of  God.  There  is  the  note  of  univer- 
sality in  this  statement  —  "all  things"  —  both  pros- 
perity and  adversity,  loss  and  gain,  life  and  death, 
whatever  comes  to  pass,  according  to  this  com- 
fortable conclusion,  all  are  at  work  upon  the  higher 
and  permanent  interests  of  the  people  of  God.  Out 
of  all  the  chaotic  disorder  of  this  world  and  the  de- 
stroying jaws  of  time  God  will  pluck  magnificent 
results  for  those  who  love  Him.  The  special  refer- 
ence of  the  text,  no  doubt,  is  to  the  dark  side  of 
things,  because  the  early  Christians  were  more 
familiar  with  that,  as  are  the  majority  of  men  in 
every  age.  Now  St.  Paul's  philosophy  of  the 
facts  of  life  is  this,  that,  amid  these  earthly  scenes, 
the  upright,   the  humble,   the  pure  are   in  process 


A    GREAT    CERTAINTY  121 

of  being  prepared  for  future  promotion  and  the 
power  and  glory  of  an  endless  life.  This  is  his 
explanation  of  the  world  so  far  as  the  children  of 
God  are  concerned  with  it.  Bodily  pain,  mental 
disquiet,  the  secret  grief,  the  burden,  bitterness, 
heaviness  that  lies  upon  the  heart,  behind  the  mask, 
often,  of  a  smiling  face,  the  whole  complement  of 
experience  is  steadily  and  surely  heading  up  toward 
a  day  of  interpretation. 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  Pauline  theory  of  this  crude, 
unfinished  scene.  They  who  pass  through  it  w^ith 
faith  and  valiant  courage  shall  finally  see  how  all 
things  have  quietly  worked  for  their  good.  Un- 
questionably this  is  a  very  hopeful  view  of  our  case. 
It  does  not  ignore  or  belittle  the  disorder  and  evil 
that  exists;  it  concedes  that  the  constitution  and 
course  of  things  is  not  perfectly  satisfactory,  that 
man  is  born  to  trouble,  and  that  society  is  full  of 
confusion  and  sin ;  it  only  asks  to  postpone  sentence 
upon  the  facts  until  some  future  era  when  an  intelli- 
gent decision  will  be  possible.  The  philosophical 
doctrine  called  Pessimism,  and  which  amounts  to  this, 
that  the  world,  if  not  the  worst  possible,  is  worse 
than  none  at  all,  finds  no  countenance  in  the  Bible. 
Nevertheless  the  Bible  recognizes  the  deep  and 
awful  disorder  that  prevails,  and  the  evil  that  clings 
both  to  man  and  nature,  and  that  this  world  is 
not  a  perfect  state,  without  flaw  or  discord.  There 
is  a  wretched,  atheistic  pessimism  unworthy  of  reli- 


122  A    GREAT    CERTAINTY 

gious  men.  Yet  it  is  folly  to  deny  that  there  is 
a  vast,  inert,  dogged  mass  of  trouble,  pain,  igno- 
rance, and  brutality,  unremoved,  unilluminated  by 
the  refining,  uplifting  agencies  at  work  upon  it, 
through  the  human  centuries.  All  great  religions, 
and  Christianity  as  much  as  any  of  them,  take 
this  for  granted.  All  deep  philosophies  undertake 
to  account  in  some  sort  for  the  evil  of  the  world, 
—  its  suffering  and  sin  and  sorrow.  This  is  the 
main  thing  to  be  explained ;  it  underlies  all  schemes 
of  recovery  and  redemption,  this  tragical  side  of 
human  life.  So  that  while  we  are  bound  to  be- 
lieve that  God  is  love  and  the  world  a  moral  system, 
and  that  goodness  or  benevolence  is  implicated  with 
its  ongoings  and  events  —  while  this  conclusion  is 
necessitated  by  our  healthy  moral  reason,  it  does 
not  follow  that  one  should  shut  his  eyes  to  the  fact 
that  this  world-process  is,  for  wise  and  sufficient 
reasons,  not  charged  with  the  final  word  about  the 
character  of  God,  and  not  allowed  to  be  decisive  in 
regard  to  Him.  Much  happens  which  staggers 
religious  faith,  creates  suspense  and  misgivings,  and 
makes  for  religious  scepticism  and  gives  space  and 
opportunity  for  large  patience  and  resignation. 

Here,  in  fact,  lay  the  great  and  memorable  con- 
troversy between  Job  and  his  three  friends.  He  had 
lost  seven  sons  and  all  his  property  by  a  sudden 
swoop  of  misfortune,  and  to  cap  all  had  broken 
out    into    a    loathsome    disease.      His    friends    at- 


A    GREAT    CERTAINTY  123 

tribute  his  unhappy  condition  to  his  sins;  he  had 
surely  nourished  some  secret  iniquity  in  his  heart 
or  hfe  which  had  provoked  the  vengeance  of  the 
Supreme  Judge;  this  was  their  ready  sokition.  In 
other  words,  their  theory  contemplated  the  present 
world  as  complete  in  itself,  a  whole,  an  entirety,  a 
rounded  orb  standing  apart  from  any  other  system 
or  any  other  future.  They  describe  in  powerful  lan- 
guage the  retaliations  that  befall  evil-doers  and  the 
rewards  that  follow  in  the  train  of  incorruptible 
virtue.  Job,  with  a  pinch  of  satiric  salt,  resents  the 
imputation  and  tells  them  that  no  doubt  wisdom  will 
die  with  them.  He  flatly  denies  their  major  prem- 
ise, that  this  world  is  a  finality,  that  books  are  bal- 
anced here  and  all  accounts  settled  now,  or  that  a 
man's  condition  in  this  world  is  a  sure  index  of 
his  moral  deserts.  Job's  opinion,  in  one  word, 
is  an  Old  Testament  anticipation  of  Paul's  doc- 
trine in  the  text,  that  this  visible,  rotating  sphere 
and  scene  of  human  experience  is  only  a  sprouting 
branch,  an  ambiguous  oracle,  the  broken  alphabet 
of  some  last  word  about  man  and  his  destiny.  Un- 
questionably Job  was  right.  This  world  as  it  stands 
is  not  the  perfect,  final  state ;  not  satisfactory,  cannot 
be  expounded  without  reference  to  something  be- 
yond itself.  There  is  too  much  waste  of  talent, 
power,  material ;  too  large  a  balance  of  insolence  and 
injustice  that  goes  unwhipped ;  all  looks  fragmen- 
tary, ragged,  at  loose  ends,  so  that  devout  minds 


124  A    GREAT    CERTAINTY 

have  only  found  rest  by  connecting  the  present  with 
a  future,  and  thinking  of  its  fermenting,  steaming 
ingredients  of  all  kinds  as  the  seeds  of  a  coming 
dispensation,  the  potential  moods  of  what  shall 
be  indicative  and  final,  after  awhile.  Or  in  St. 
Paul's  phrase,  "  All  things  work  together  for 
good."  Ah,  yes,  we  must  front  the  evil,  the  sorrow 
and  disorder  of  the  world,  and  confess  that  it  is 
real;  but  with  this  saving  clause:  that  it  is  not 
the  whole  case,  but  only  part  of  a  larger  system 
revolving  out  of  sight,  —  the  preparatory  tunings 
and  scrapings  that  usher  in  the  harmony  of  instru- 
ments in  full  orchestra. 

This  is  the  Christian  idea.  It  does  not  defend  all 
that  happens.  It  does  not  declare  there  is  no  phys- 
ical or  moral  evil.  It  does  not  engage  to  establish 
the  absolute  justice  and  goodness  of  God  from  pres- 
ent indications.  It  will  not  allow  the  case  to  be  shut 
up  within  the  narrow  limits  of  earth  and  time  and 
man's  history  on  the  globe,  or  rest  it  upon  the  evi- 
dence as  it  now  stands.  None  of  the  splendid  ideas 
that  make  up  religion  shine  upon  us  like  full  harvest 
moons.  We  are  saved  by  hope.  We  walk  by  faith. 
We  prophesy  in  part.  We  see  only  the  seed-corns, 
not  the  sheaves.  We  live  in  the  early  spring-time, 
not  in  the  vintage  or  harvest.  It  is  our  privilege  to 
believe  that  all  things  are  "  working  together  for 
good,"  but  how  exactly,  we  do  not  quite  see;  it  is 
too  soon  yet.     The  caterpillar  crawling  laboriously 


A    GREAT    CERTAINTY  125 

along  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  the  fly  aHghting  on  the 
frieze  or  cornice  of  a  temple,  does  not  take  in  the 
unity  and  symmetry  of  the  structure;  nor  has  man 
with  his  imperial  reason  and  religious  imagination 
a  vision  strong  and  keen  enough  to  see  how  all  the 
lines  of  human  experience  and  all  the  providential 
histories  of  the  race  are  to  be  gathered  up  and 
reconciled.  All  the  Christian  revelation  insists  upon 
is,  that  in  the  final  summing  up,  when  the  mys- 
tery of  time  is  finished,  both  man  and  angel, 
the  whole  rational  universe,  will  be  satisfied.  In- 
deed, it  is  almost  a  necessary  truth  of  the  reason 
that  if  an  infinitely  good  and  powerful  being  is  in 
control  of  all  events,  the  goal  must  be  ultimate  good 
for  the  greatest  number.  What  now  looks  other- 
wise must  surely  be  but  eddies,  back-waters,  tem- 
porary stagnation.  Underneath  the  stormy  surface 
a  strong,  broad,  eternal  current  sets  towards  the 
final  moral  harmony  of  the  creation.  God  is  not  a 
God  of  confusion,  the  architect  of  ruin,  the  patron 
of  sin  and  disorder.  The  sediment  will  settle  and 
the  stream  run  clear;  after  awhile  man  will  come 
to  a  better  use  of  his  faculties ;  evil  will  stand  abol- 
ished and  pain  will  find  its  king.  This  is  the  tend- 
ency of  things.  This  is  the  prophecy  of  the  Bible, 
and  this  the  unquenchable  aspiration  of  the  best 
part  of  the  race  that,  somehow,  either  by  slow  secu- 
lar stages  or  rapidly  and  by  miracle,  old  things  shall 
pass  away  and  all  things  become  new.    It  is  a  very 


126  A    GREAT    CERTAINTY 

comfortable  prospect.  The  Christian  gospel  bids  us 
take  a  large  view  and  be  hopeful  and  patient.  It 
asks  us  not  to  judge  the  building  by  a  single  brick, 
mighty  Babylon  or  learned  Eg}^pt  by  a  fallen  column 
or  a  broken  arch.  And  this  is  the  chief  comfort  of 
serious  and  devout  men  looking  out  upon  the  back- 
ward condition  of  the  world.  If  they  could  not 
believe  Paul's  doctrine  touching  the  blessed  and 
beneficent  tendency  of  things,  hope  would  perish  and 
all  incentive  die.  But  they  are  obliged  to  believe  it. 
It  is  and  has  been  the  faith  of  the  finest  minds, 
that  all  things  are  working  together  and  working  up 
toward  a  stable  equilibrium  and  successful  solution 
of  the  human  experiment. 

Have  you  such  faith  in  God  as  makes  for  con- 
tentment, confidence,  and  serenity?  If  there  be 
anything  incurable  in  your  circumstances,  are  you 
satisfied  that  it  is  for  the  best?  Are  you  among 
those  who  love  God,  toward  whose  highest  interest 
all  things  conspire?  They  who  climb  the  Mount  of 
God  come  out  of  tribulation;  they  pass  through 
successive  climates  and  temperatures,  through  lands 
of  wonder  and  over  ground  that  has  been  broken 
by  flame  and  earthquake,  but  when  they  reach  the 
summit,  and  from  some  peak  of  the  eternal  world 
look  down  at  length  upon  their  life-pilgrimage,  they 
shall  be  satisfied ;  they  will  see  how  all  things  have 
indeed  worked  together  for  their  good. 


PROVIDENTIAL   ARRANGEMENTS 

A}td  the  etmuch  answered  Philip,  and  said,  I  pray  thee,  of 
•whom  speaketh  the  prophet  this  ?  of  himself,  or  of  some 
other  tnan  ?  Then  Philip  opened  his  jnoiith,  and  began  at  the 
same  scripture,  and  preached  unto  him  Jesus.  —  Acts  viii, 
34,  35- 

PERSECUTION  acted  as  a  stimulus  upon 
the  jfirst  Christian  disciples  and  brought 
them  into  contact  with  the  Gentile  world. 
Temporary  evils  have  often  become  the  occasion  of 
subsequent  enlargement ;  disappointment,  delay,  dif- 
ficulty, have  often  been  the  seed-plot  out  of  which 
sturdy  growths  have  sprung.  Sometimes  that  which 
looks  unpromising  is  the  most  hopeful  thing,  and  is, 
according  to  the  proverb,  the  dark  and  dreary  hour 
before  the  dawn.  Men  are  fallacious  in  their  judg- 
ments, and  what  they  consider  to  be  success  often 
turns  out,  in  the  long  account,  to  have  been  failure ; 
while  what  they  deplore  as  failure  is  found  finally  to 
have  been  the  beginning  of  their  strength.  This 
paradox  was  abundantly  illustrated  in  the  history  of 
the  early  Church.  Two  or  three  years  after  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  the  stoning  of  Stephen  opened  a  chap- 
ter of  persecution  which  broke  up  the  Jerusalem 
Church  and  dispersed  the  Christians.  It  was  a  sore 
trial,  but  it  bore  good  fruit,  for  it  operated  to  uni- 


128     PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS 

versalize  the  gospel  and  to  convince  the  disciples  of 
what  they  were  not  quick  to  learn,  —  that  the  work 
and  services  of  Christ  were  designed  both  for  Gentile 
and  Jew.  Later  came  St.  Peter's  vision  and  visit  to 
centurion  Cornelius,  and  the  formal  admission  of 
the  Gentiles  to  the  doctrines  and  comforts  of  the 
gospel.  Previous  to  this,  however,  it  appears  that 
a  step  had  been  taken  in  the  same  general  direction. 
Philip,  —  one  of  the  seven  original  deacons,  —  who 
had  been  nestling  in  Jerusalem,  was  driven  forth  by 
fear  of  violence,  and  probably  for  reasons  of  personal 
safety  betook  himself  to  Samaria,  where  he  preached 
and  made  converts  to  the  Christian  faith.  Christ's 
parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  seemed  to  harmonize 
with  this  action  of  his  and  to  justify  a  letting  down 
of  the  bars  of  exclusiveness. 

In  further  pursuance  of  his  missionary  idea,  he 
fell  in,  as  the  record  reads,  with  an  officer  in  the  ser- 
vice of  queen  Candace,  of  Upper  Nubia.  The  high 
treasurer  of  her  realm  had  been  visiting  the  north, 
and  had  gone  into  Palestine,  whence  he  was  on  his 
way  home.  As  to  his  nationality,  it  is  in  doubt; 
but  most  likely  he  was  not  a  Jew,  although  he  may 
have  been  a  proselyte  to  the  Hebrew  faith.  Presum- 
ably he  had  gone  up  to  Jerusalem  on  a  religious 
errand  and  to  be  present  at  one  of  the  Jewish  feasts. 
All  the  indications  lead  up  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
was  a  capable  and  thoughtful  man,  otherwise  he 
would  hardly  have  possessed  the  confidence  of  his 


PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS     129 

government  and  been  intrusted  with  the  key  to  funds 
and  the  administration  of  affairs.  Evidently  here 
was  a  person  of  a  reflective,  inquiring  turn,  an  earnest 
man  of  fundamental  seriousness  of  nature,  one  who 
sought  information  and  self-improvement  and  was 
not  wholly  absorbed  in  his  own  self-importance  and 
dazzled  by  glitter  and  secularities ;  at  least  so  much 
is  inferable  from  the  reported  fact  that  he  was  read- 
ing the  Hebrew  Scriptures  when  Philip,  the  chris- 
tian deacon,  overtook  him.  Quite  a  good  sign, 
either  in  a  public  man  or  a  private  one,  this  read- 
ing of  the  Bible!  Straws  thrown  into  the  air 
are  said  to  show  how  the  wind  sets,  and  so  the 
bare  circumstance  that  queen  Candace's  high  treas- 
urer was  engaged  in  reading  the  Hebrew  Prophet 
Isaiah  indicates  sobriety,  some  depth,  some  solidity 
of  character. 

It  was  on  the  road  from  Jerusalem  to  Gaza  that 
Philip  happened  to  espy  him.  Gaza  lay  about  sixty 
miles  southwest  of  Jerusalem,  and  was  a  great  city 
of  the  Philistines  in  the  days  of  the  Israelitish  inva- 
sion ;  it  stood  upon  the  route  toward  the  Nile  and 
the  Red  Sea,  and  along  this  sandy,  lonesome  road 
queen  Candace's  cabinet  officer  took  his  course 
homeward.  Philip  may  have  queried,  "  Why  was 
I  led  to  take  this  desert  road  to  Gaza  on  this  day, 
and  what  is  there  for  me  to  do  in  this  cjuarter  ?  " 
But  doubtless  the  thing  lay  on  his  mind  with  decided 
pressure  and  kept  revolving  itself  before  him,  until 

9 


130     PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS 

he  was  satisfied  that  it  was  a  veritable  divine  call 
and  must  be  heeded.  When,  however,  he  caught 
sight  of  the  lordly  chariot  of  Candace's  treasurer 
rolling  on,  this  incident  may  well  have  flung  an  inter- 
preting light  upon  his  secret  presentiment.  And  the 
more  he  pondered  the  singular  situation  the  clearer 
waxed  his  conviction  that  this  was  what  he  was  sent 
to  do,  to  overtake  this  stranger  and  get  speech  with 
him.  He  seemed  to  hear  a  voice,  "  Go  near,  join 
thyself  to  this  chariot."  Moreover,  mark  the  prepa- 
ration made  in  the  mind  and  temper  of  the  Ethiopian 
official.  For,  consider  it  narrowly,  it  was  rather  a 
bold  stroke  in  the  poor  christian  deacon.  Candace's 
treasurer  might  have  mistaken  him  for  a  designing 
person,  and  been  provoked  by  the  interruption.  But 
observe,  this  contingency  had  been  provided  for  by 
a  providential  adjustment,  so  that  the  next  act  in 
the  scene  is  the  halting  of  the  chariot  and  the  ascent 
of  it  by  Philip,  who  seats  himself  composedly  next 
this  man  of  authority  and  of  meritorious  stars  and 
medals. 

The  whole  incident  is  a  fine  illustration  of  the 
strategy  of  divine  providence.  For,  suppose  this 
Ethiopian  grandee  had  told  Philip  to  go  about  his 
business,  as  he  might  easily  have  done,  or  demanded 
of  him  what  he  meant  by  his  effrontery  in  asking 
a  gentleman  whether  he  understood  what  he  was 
reading;  had  this  been  the  nobleman's  short  method 
with  the  christian  deacon,  no  reader  of  the  record 


PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS     131 

would  be  deeply  surprised.  But  nothing  of  the 
kind  happened;  in  place  of  snubbing  or  in  any 
wise  rebuking  his  new-made  acquaintance,  he  in- 
vited him  to  mount  the  chariot  and  ride  along 
with  him !  It  develops  two  facts,  —  one  of  them 
that  the  man  had  breadth,  a  ring  of  genuine 
greatness  about  him,  humility,  and  a  fine  curi- 
osity touching  high  subjects  of  inquiry;  and  it 
also  shows  the  moving  upon  his  mind  of  a  divine 
influence,  controlling,  directing,  ripening  him  toward 
certain  results.  It  is  a  truth,  evermore  illustrated, 
in  human  experience,  that  when  God  has  an  end  to 
achieve,  anything  in  the  way  of  a  secondary  cause 
will  answer;  even  miracles  are  then  commonplace. 
For  I  call  it  a  moral  miracle  that  this  high  official 
of  queen  Candace  should  rein  up  his  horses,  take 
a  wandering  Jew  off  the  road,  and  bid  him  expound 
the  Bible  to  him!  Nevertheless,  such  surprises  are 
part  of  the  case  for  the  doctrine  of  an  overruling 
providence.  By  these  trifles,  as  we  name  them, 
by  hair-breadth  escapes,  by  small  accidents,  by  re- 
mote contingencies  becoming  actual  facts,  great, 
enduring,  incalculable  results  are  often  brought 
about. 

One  of  the  deep  questions  before  the  human 
mind  —  indeed,  perhaps  the  most  transcendentally 
interesting  —  is  just  this :  whether  there  be  a  living 
and  personal  God,  who  is  supremely  interested  in 
man.     How  can  men  approach  this  question  and 


132     PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS 

answer  it  satisfactorily?  To  some,  indeed,  it  calls 
for  no  proof,  seems  to  them  to  be  self-luminous, 
an  intuitive  first  truth  that  there  is  a  monarch- 
intelligence,  a  righteous  almighty  will  underlying 
the  universe  and  responsible  for  it.  No  doubt 
there  be  multitudes  to  whom  it  has  never  occurred 
to  doubt  the  existence  of  a  designing  and  moral 
Deity.  But  there  are  others  —  although  prob- 
ably a  minority  —  who  cannot  admit  this  great 
postulate ;  at  least  they  fail  to  see  why  this  universe 
of  sights  and  sounds,  of  mechanical  forces  and 
chemical  affinities,  may  not  have  come  about  as 
one  toss  out  of  a  million,  working  itself  into  present 
shape  through  limitless  aeons  of  geologic  time, 
through  the  lapse  of  an  infinite  duration,  and  des- 
tined again  to  sink  into  that  chaos  out  of  which  it 
rose.  Now,  not  to  enumerate  all  the  divers  evidences 
bearing  upon  this  central,  essential  doctrine  of  the- 
ology, the  existence  of  a  personal  God,  here  is  one 
of  them;  it  is  found  in  the  skilful  arrangement  by 
which  superlative  issues  are  often  precipitated  by 
the  ministry  of  means  apparently  inadequate  to  pro- 
duce them  —  or  by  what  we  would  call  accident. 
So  much  has  taken  place  in  this  world  by  the  grace 
of  some  trifling  cause,  by  an  unexpected  turn  of 
affairs,  by  the  rapid  development  of  a  situation, 
that  it  is  calculated  to  put  sober  men  upon  thinking 
whether,  after  all,  even  with  their  guns,  banners, 
and  diplomacies,  they  are  really  so  potent  in  mak- 


PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS     133 

ing  history  as  they  appear  to  be.  No  reflective 
person  but  must  be  impressed  by  this  uncertain, 
incalculable  element  in  human  experience,  and  to 
account  for  it  men  have  invented  the  category  of 
luck  or  chance,  under  which  they  put  such  things 
as  carry  an  element  of  mystery  and  which  they  can- 
not quite  understand.  For  this  feeling  is  universal, 
that  there  exists  much  in  the  world  and  that  much 
happens  which  cannot  be  satisfactorily  explained 
by  ordinary  human  causation.  Thus,  oftentimes 
that  which  has  been  one's  labor  and  despair  for 
a  long  time  suddenly  blossoms,  and  what  you  or 
I  could  not  do  has  been  brought  about  silently, 
secretly,  by  imperceptible  and  powerful  influences 
which  have  prepared  the  way  for  it.  Who  has  not 
had  occasion  to  observe  this?  By  a  curious  con- 
course of  circumstances,  just  at  the  nick  of  time, 
some  salutary,  blessed  change  has  been  brought  in, 
some  great  desideratum  realized. 

Now,  such  notorious  facts  constantly  falling 
under  observation,  bear  upon  the  doctrine  of  a 
presiding  providence.  They  are  part  of  the  case, 
and  a  very  material  part  of  it.  Sinai  and  its 
thunders  are  hushed,  Moses  no  longer  talks  with 
God,  Samuel  no  longer  hears  His  voice  at  the  dead 
of  night,  the  Jewish  high  priest  and  his  breastplate 
of  glittering  stones  has  passed  away,  oracles  are 
dumb,  prophecy  has  ceased,  miracle  is  discontinued. 
What,  then,  has  man  to  fall  back  upon  in  proof  of 


134    PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS 

a  personal  God  ?  Chiefly  three  things :  Nature, 
with  its  punctualities  and  adaptations  and  all  its 
teleology;  Providence,  the  order  of  events,  the  no- 
table and  apparently  designed  coincidences  in  human 
and  historical  experience;  and,  best  of  all,  the  per- 
son and  authority  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Christian 
revelation.  Of  course,  objections  can  be  alleged 
against  all  these  lines  of  evidence.  It  may  be  ob- 
jected that,  so  far  as  nature  is  concerned,  its  testi- 
mony is  ambiguous;  that  while  the  seasons  are 
pretty  uniform,  and  the  stars  keep  their  stations, 
and  the  planets  rotate  on  their  axes,  and  seed-time 
and  harvest  continue,  and  there  is  probably  a  bal- 
ance of  pleasure  over  pain,  there  are  also  antago- 
nistic facts :  monstrous  births,  frustrated  crops,  rain 
falling  on  deserts,  fruits  blasted  in  the  blossom, 
divers  anomalies  coming  to  light  from  time  to  time. 
In  regard  to  divine  providence  it  might  be  objected 
that  justice  is  often  evaded,  fraud,  vice,  and  oppres- 
sion often  congratulated  and  crowned,  while  robust 
virtues  have  to  retire  into  obscurity  and  make  a 
precarious  livelihood.  As  to  the  testimony  of  Jesus, 
it  might  be  alleged  against  him  that  he  was  an  enthu- 
siast by  temperament,  and  a  fallible  although  per- 
fectly upright  man.  You  cannot  prove  the  being  of 
a  personal  and  living  God  to  any  mind  not  prepared 
for  it,  while  any  one  who  demands  it,  as  the  satis- 
faction of  his  nature,  calls  for  little  or  no  additional 
evidence.     Nevertheless,   it  remains  true  that  the 


PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS     135 

course  of  divine  providence,  in  the  development  of 
public  history  and  in  the  private  experience  of  the 
individual,  bears  strongly  upon  this  doctrine  and 
tends  to  establish  it.  Every  one  perceives,  who 
looks  narrowly,  that  there  is  much  in  his  own 
personal  problem  which  has  occurred  without  his 
assent  or  dissent,  and  that  he  has  rather  been  led 
than  been  leader.  Even  where  he  has  been  success- 
ful, the  times,  seasons,  and  concomitants  were  not 
always  of  his  choosing.  Beneath  all  his  fussy, 
pragmatical  activity  and  apparent  importance  in 
the  premises,  many  questions  have  been  decided 
for  him  by  the  drift  of  events,  by  the  unlooked-for 
emergence  of  some  new  factor  or  complication.  So 
that  serious  men  and  women  discover  in  their  per- 
sonal lives  the  footprints  and  echoes  of  a  Higher 
Presence,  who  lets  them  see  His  shadow  once  in  a 
while,  and  hear  His  retreating  footfalls,  but  does 
not  obtrude  Himself. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  cogent,  satisfying  proofs 
open  to  man  in  his  present  estate  of  ignorance, 
touching  a  moral  government  of  the  world.  God 
speaks  to  you  in  the  items  of  every-day  experience 
and  at  the  turns  of  the  street,  in  the  persistent 
impressions  made  on  your  mind,  in  the  blocking 
of  your  way,  in  your  doubt  as  to  the  wisdom  and 
expediency  of  this  or  that,  in  the  rapid  rush  and 
coalescence  of  little  circumstances,  none  of  them 
by  itself  sufficient,  but  all  of  them,  taken  together. 


136     PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS 

conclusive.  In  the  cooling  and  crumbling  of  friend- 
ships, in  opportunities  and  effectual  doors  opened 
at  the  due  moment,  when  all  things  were  ripe, 
in  some  casual  acquaintance  or  flying  rumor,  —  by 
such  infinitesimal  notes  and  signs  God  makes  him- 
self known  to  the  children  of  men,  announces  His 
presence,  utters  His  dark  parables,  and  points  the 
path  of  duty  and  of  safety.  This  is  one  of  the  silent 
ways  by  which  you  may  come  to  an  inner  persua- 
sion concerning  God.  Certainly  it  is  open  to  mis- 
conception, as  almost  everything  is.  A  man  may 
imagine  that  God  is  leading  him,  whereas  it  is  his 
ambition,  pride,  vanity,  vindictiveness,  and  obsti- 
nacy that  leads  him  on.  Undoubtedly  you  may 
misinterpret  the  mystic  handwriting;  but  for  all 
that,  it  abides  true  that  providential  orderings  and 
indications  are  part  of  that  standing,  continuous 
self-disclosure  which  God  makes  to  mankind.  You, 
too,  may  have  a  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire,  you 
may  hear  a  still  small  voice,  you  may  draw  water 
out  of  flinty  rocks,  you  may  rehearse  the  mirac- 
ulous journeyings  of  the  children  of  Israel.  He 
who  does  not  ponder  his  life-experience,  and  note 
its  broad  tendencies,  misses  one  of  the  finest  proofs 
for  God  and  religion.  For  he  will  have  it  borne 
in  upon  him,  with  cogent  force,  that,  in  the  main, 
he  did  not  direct  his  steps,  did  not  choose  his 
changes,  did  not  carve  his  career,  did  not  set  up 
the  milestones  and  epochs  in  his  history.     He  will 


PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS     137 

probably  see  that  upon  more  than  one  occasion  he 
came  within  an  ace  of  being  utterly  overthrown; 
that  once  or  twice  he  triumphed  against  tremendous 
odds ;  and  that  again,  when  all  signs  were  propi- 
tious, at  the  eleventh  hour  a  wire  snapped,  a  bolt 
fell  out,  and  he  failed,  to  his  own  and  the  general 
astonishment. 

In  order  to  get  the  whole  body  of  Christian  evi- 
dence, you  should  not  fail  to  take  account  of  your- 
self and  the  contents  of  your  experience.  Is  this 
a  chance  world,  or  do  we  live  under  a  moral  govern- 
ment? There  is  no  thoughtful  person  but  will  find 
that  great  question  constantly  emerging  out  of  the 
confused  medley  of  life.  Only  the  frivolous  or 
stupid  can  fail  to  feel  its  pressure.  Whosoever 
wishes  to  ascertain  whether  there  be  a  God  in  the 
earth  should  be  put  upon  considering  his  deliver- 
ances, his  narrow  escapes,  his  punishments,  the 
system  of  compensations  that  obtains,  the  startling 
events,  the  overthrow  of  crafty  plans,  or  their  tem- 
porary success,  only  to  be  dashed  a  little  later  with 
a  terrible  retribution  —  these  are  marks  of  provi- 
dential design.  For  men  are  constantly  getting 
caught  in  their  own  traps ;  they  are  hoisted  by  the 
recoil  of  their  own  guns ;  their  mischief  descends 
upon  their  own  pate;  their  prosperity,  tainted  by 
wrong  practices,  goes  sour;  their  harp  is  turned  to 
mourning,  and  their  organ  to  the  voice  of  them 
that  weep,  and  that  which  was  their  joy  and  crown 


138    PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEMENTS 

turns  out  to  be  canker  and  moth  on  their  happiness. 
It  is  God  working  in  human  experience;  God 
opening  a  fresh  Bible  in  every  man's  consciousness. 
See  how  it  fared  with  Phihp.  Driven  forth  toward 
Gaza  by  a  strong  presentiment,  he  falls  in  with  Can- 
dace's  chamberlain  and  does  his  real  errand.  It  is  a 
capital  illustration  of  the  way  of  God  with  men. 
They  are  led  along  step  by  step,  seeing  only  a  few 
rods  before  them;  light  breaks  slowly;  the  whole 
truth  is  not  communicated  in  lump;  they  start  out 
with  one  purpose  and  fulfil  another;  they  blunder 
on  in  the  dark,  not  knowing  whither  they  go  or  what 
will  turn  up,  until  some  day  the  end  of  their  action 
and  its  interpretation  stands  disclosed. 

This  is  the  state  of  man,  and  this  is  the  sphere 
of  supreme  providence.  We  live  by  the  day.  There 
is  no  use  in  discounting  the  future ;  it  is  too  big  and 
doubtful.  We  cannot  hasten  our  education  or  an- 
ticipate the  successive  stages  of  it.  It  must  come 
like  the  alphabet,  letter  by  letter,  until  the  whole 
is  spelt  out.  We  may  fret  and  mutter  and  try  to 
push  things  and  make  ourselves  unhappy  over  the 
tardy  movements  of  divine  purpose,  but  it  is  of  no 
practical  use.  We  must  work  and  we  must  wait, 
we  must  do  or  defer,  we  must  go  or  stay,  as  the 
time  is  ripe.  There  is  an  appointed  time  for  man 
upon  the  earth,  in  more  than  one  sense,  and  our 
part  is  to  take  our  times  as  they  come,  and  to  do 
their  manifest  bidding,  and  not  to  attempt  to  over- 


PROVIDENTIAL   ARRANGEMENTS     139 

reach,  compress,  or  precipitate  them.  In  this  man- 
ner one  who  Hves  seriously,  vigilantly,  reverently, 
with  meekness  and  fidelity,  will  be  apt  to  find  a  new 
revelation  and  a  new  hope  springing  out  of  his  own 
life-experience. 

It  is  also  a  matter  of  inference  suggested  by  this 
incident  that  the  Ethiopian  chamberlain  may  be 
taken  as  a  type  of  a  large  class  of  mind  in  that 
day.  He  was  a  seeker  after  God,  of  whom  doubt- 
less there  were  not  a  few  in  the  Roman  Empire. 
The  pagan  mythology  was  no  longer  acceptable 
to  thoughtful  men ;  the  credulous  and  superstitious 
still  clung  to  old  traditions  and  oracles,  but  candid^ 
earnest  men  felt  that  the  theology  of  the  crowd 
was  a  hollow  shell,  at  best  a  police-regulation  to 
keep  order.  Scepticism  was  in  the  air.  Even 
among  the  Jews  in  Palestine  religion  had  become 
a  dreary  form,  an  immense  ennui ;  while  among 
the  peoples  who  crowded  around  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  it  had  become  an  idle  ceremonial,  and  morality 
was  dead.  There  was  neither  ethical  rectitude 
nor  religious  enthusiasm  when  Jesus  appeared 
to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost.  The 
philosophers  discussed  abstractions  and  the  popu- 
lace ran  after  spectacles.  It  was  high  time  for  a 
new  doctrine,  a  new  hope,  a  new  impulse;  the  best 
men  had  lost  confidence  in  the  ability  of  the  world 
to  help  itself. 

Very  properly,  then,  did  Philip  preach  Jesus  to 


140     PROVIDENTIAL    ARRANGEAIENTS 

the  inquiring  Ethiopian,  For  Jesus,  the  Christ,  is 
the  great  answer  God  has  given  to  the  rehgious 
questionings  of  the  human  mind.  He  claims  to 
know  absohitely  what  we  are  ignorant  of  concern- 
ing the  future  and  the  ends  of  human  existence. 
He  stands  up  in  the  midst  of  the  centuries,  massive, 
inscrutable,  authoritative.  He  says,  "  I  am  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life."  "  I  know  whence  I  came 
and  whither  I  go."  "  I  am  not  alone,  but  I  and  the 
Father  that  sent  me."  If  you  would  fain  know  of 
whom  the  prophet  speaks ;  if  you  would  know  what 
human  life  means,  what  God  requires  of  man;  if 
you  would  have  your  speculative  doubts,  besetting 
sins,  and  anxieties  hushed,  —  you  must  discover  the 
secret  of  Jesus ;  you  must  come  under  his  influ- 
ence ;  you  must  take  his  point  of  view ;  you  must 
acquire  his  spirit  and  temper;  you  must  obey 
his  commandments ;  you  must  take  your  poor,  fool- 
ish, empty,  sinful  life  to  the  Son  of  God,  the  high 
priest  of  humanity,  and  bid  him  throw  his  protec- 
tion around  it.  "  Then  Philip  opened  his  mouth 
and  preached  unto  him  Jesus." 


HOW    OLD   ART   THOU? 

And    Pharaoh    said   unto  Jacob,   How  old   art   thou?  — 
Genesis  xlvii.  8. 

EITHER  Thothmes  III.  or  Amenophis  III. 
was  the  probable  Pharaoh  of  Joseph's  pro- 
motion, and  hence  the  monarch  who  held 
the  interview  with  Jacob,  the  Hebrew  Patriarch, 
reported  in  the  context.  Both  of  them  were  great 
rulers,  great  builders,  and  great  warriors.  The 
balance  of  probability  favors  Thothmes  III.,  ac- 
cording to  the  students  of  Egyptian  chronology. 
He  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Egyptian  kings, 
—  executive,  energetic,  statesmanlike;  a  broad, 
constructive  mind.  Two  men  of  more  dissimilar 
antecedents,  training,  religious  ideas,  and  worldly 
position  than  this  Pharaoh  of  the  Egyptians  and 
the  Patriarch  Jacob,  could  not  easily  have  been 
brought  together.  The  one  was  a  ruler  of  men, 
the  other  a  shepherd ;  the  one  a  worshipper  of  idols, 
the  other  a  Hebrew  who  worshipped  Jehovah;  the 
one  lived  amid  pomp  and  pageantry,  the  incense  of 
flatterers,  the  agitations  of  public  life,  the  other 
had  spent  his  days  in  the  midst  of  pastoral  simpli- 
cities, in  the  solitude  of  his  own  musings,  and  in 
igfnorance  of  the  transactions  of  courts  and  contem- 


142  HOW    OLD    ART    THOU? 

porary  politics.  It  could  not  be  otherwise  than  that 
the  opinions,  tastes,  mental  temperament  of  the 
two  men  should  be  antipodal,  no  mutual  congenial- 
ity present  upon  which  to  found  a  friendship.  Nor 
would  they  ever  have  been  thrown  together  had  it 
not  been  for  the  seemingly  casual  occurrence  which 
led  Joseph  into  Egypt  many  years  earlier.  But 
one  event  opens  up  into  another,  one  fact  necessi- 
tates another;  there  is  an  unseen  chain  of  causes 
and  consequents  which  binds  up  the  history  of  man- 
kind and  makes  it  a  unity.  Jacob  would  never  have 
seen  a  Pharaoh  had  not  Joseph  seen  one  first;  but 
Joseph  having  actually  been  sold  into  Egypt,  it 
followed,  as  a  fixed  fact  in  the  order  of  events, 
that  his  father,  in  due  time,  should  journey  thither 
also.  In  this  way  things  hang  together,  have 
a  genetic  relation  to  each  other,  so  that  one,  of 
necessity  and  as  a  matter  of  natural  consequence, 
issues  out  of  its  antecedent.  Hence  one  never 
really  knows  the  eventual  outcome  of  any  act  or 
its  ultimate  consequences,  and  is  liable  to  be  sur- 
prised by  them,  either  pleasurably  or  inconveniently. 
Life  is  continually  dinning  into  our  deaf  ears  the 
inestimable  lesson  of  prudence,  forecast,  and  prac- 
tical wisdom  in  choices  and  conduct. 

Mark  also  the  admirable  sagacity  of  Joseph  and 
his  robust  common  sense;  he  did  not  move  to  in- 
stall his  humble  relatives  in  public  positions,  or  ask 
that  they  receive  appointments  of  trust  and  emolu- 


HOW    OLD    ART    THOU?  143 

ment  under  the  Egyptian  government,  or  use  his 
immense  influence  for  their  promotion;  no  tie  of 
fleshly  relationship  overrode  his  sound  sense  of  the 
fitness  of  things ;  but,  knowing  their  familiarity  with 
the  ways  of  cattle  rather  than  with  the  ways  of  men, 
he  set  apart  a  province  of  lower  Egypt  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Nile  and  a  frontier  to  Palestine  for  their 
residence.  It  was  a  fat  region,  suitable  to  their 
occupation,  and  called  the  land  of  Goshen.  More- 
over, when  Joseph  heard  that  Jacob,  his  venerable 
father,  had  at  length  arrived  there,  he  made  ready 
his  chariot,  and  drove  over  to  meet  him  without 
delay.  Of  course  the  meeting  was  affecting  and  full 
of  demonstration ;  it  could  not  be  otherwise.  Doubt- 
less they  were  both  choked  with  emotions  too  big  for 
utterance.  Such  a  scene  can  be  more  easily  imag- 
ined than  described.  The  two  had  been  divided  by 
a  gulf  of  eventful  years  during  which  immense 
changes  had  taken  place.  Jacob  last  saw  his  illus- 
trious son  upon  that  fateful  day  when  he  sent  him 
forth,  a  lone  lad,  his  brain  teeming  with  dreams  and 
quixotic  extravagances,  to  seek  his  wild  and  rough 
brothers  near  Shechem.  On  their  return  home  they 
told  the  old  man  a  story  which  covered  their  tracks 
and  plausibly  accounted  for  Joseph's  absence,  but  did 
not  heal  his  broken  heart  or  even  quite  remove  his 
dark  suspicions.  Meantime,  and  since  that  early 
date,  Joseph  had  passed  through  all  the  inflections 
of  human  experience.    He  had  been  sold  like  a  sheep. 


144  HOW    OLD    ART    THOU? 

slandered,  imprisoned,  despised,  and  rejected ;  he 
had  also  been  sumptuously  apparelled,  applauded  to 
the  echo,  and  proclaimed  prince  and  premier  in  the 
most  famous  of  extant  kingdoms,  —  the  whirligig 
of  time  had  brought  in  its  revenges.  The  caprices 
of  what  men  call  luck  had  made  the  shepherd  boy 
into  a  prime-minister  and  great  executive.  And 
when  Jacob  and  Joseph  thought  upon  these  things 
they  wept.  Indeed,  they  could  not  better  commem- 
orate the  occasion;  it  was  too  tremendous  for 
words.  There  come  times  when  the  heart  can- 
not speak ;  and  it  is  not  strange  that  the  joy  of  these 
men  was  dashed  with  tears  as  the  years  of  separa- 
tion, crowded  with  wondrous  reverses  and  reminis- 
cences, thronged  the  chambers  of  memory.  It  is 
usually  more  painful  to  look  back  than  it  is  to  look 
forward;  indeed,  there  be  many  who  cannot  trust 
themselves  to  look  back,  so  much  has  happened  that 
they  could  wish  otherwise,  so  much  of  evil  and  of 
misfortune  which  they  fancy  they  might  have  pre- 
vented had  they  been  considerate  and  alert  and  even 
reasonably  careful.  They  have  made  so  many  mis- 
takes, lost  so  many  opportunities,  wounded  so  many 
kind  hearts,  been  so  selfish  and  ungrateful ;  so  much 
that  is  remediless,  irrevocable,  sad,  mayhap  tragic, 
has  fallen  out  in  their  life- journey,  that  they  find  it 
pathetic  and  intolerable  to  dwell  upon  the  years  that 
are  fled.  So  that  notwithstanding  all  that  is  dim, 
treacherous,  and  uncertain  in  the  future,  most  men 


HOW    OLD    ART    THOU?  145 

and  women  can  probably  look  out  npon  that  misty, 
tumbling-  sea  with  steadier  nerve  and  more  compo- 
sure than  upon  the  past  with  its  mingled  good  and 
evil.  For  the  past  is  a  sealed  and  clasped  book; 
it  is  absolutely  finished,  —  what  I  have  written,  I 
have  written.     There  is  no  hope  for  the  past. 

Small  wonder,  then,  that  when  Joseph  met  his 
aged  father  in  Goshen  there  should  have  been  tears. 
Full  enough  had  happened  since  last  they  saw  each 
other  to  break  up  the  fountain  of  feeling  and  flood 
their  souls  with  its  rising  tides. 

The  next  move,  however,  was  to  escort  the  Patri- 
arch to  the  palace  and  present  him  to  the  Pharaoh, 
for  he  had  not  yet  witnessed  the  dimensions  of 
Joseph's  power  and  glory.  The  whole  company, 
therefore,  both  Jacob  and  his  sons,  were  taken  into 
the  presence  chamber,  where  the  ceremony  of  intro- 
duction took  place.  The  record  states  that  as  soon 
as  the  aged  man  was  confronted  with  the  monarch, 
he  blessed  him,  uttering  a  few  words  of  invocation 
in  his  own  tongue,  invoking  upon  him  the  guidance 
and  protection  of  the  God  of  Abraham  and  Isaac. 
This  preliminary  concluded,  the  Pharaoh  said  unto 
Jacob,  "  How  old  art  thou?  "  —  a  somewhat  singu- 
lar salutation,  and  perhaps  not  quite  the  remark 
that  would  have  suggested  itself  to  a  modern  as 
most  apposite  to  the  occasion.  But  every  one  know^s 
how  difficult  it  is  oftentimes  to  open  a  conversation, 
especially  with  a  total  stranger,  concerning  whose 


146  HOW    OLD    ART   THOU? 

tastes  and  temperament  one  is  in  perfect  ignorance. 
This  may  have  been  Pharaoh's  embarrassing  pre- 
dicament ;  or,  it  may  be  that  he  was  profoundly  im- 
pressed by  the  appearance  and  air  of  this  venerable 
man  who  stood  before  him,  and  the  question  leaped 
spontaneously  to  his  lips ;  his  curiosity  was  aroused. 
For  Jacob  was  now  old  and  bent,  his  eye  no  longer 
lustrous,  his  step  infirm,  his  face  furrowed  and 
gaunt,  his  brow  clouded  with  care  and  sorrow;  the 
frosts  of  many  years  whitened  his  head;  the  hard 
trader.  Time,  had  set  its  mark  deep  upon  him. 
A  sad,  broken,  shrunken  old  man,  tossed  to  and 
fro  on  stormy  events,  yet  carrying  about  him  an 
air  of  dignity  and  self-respect,  —  thus  Jacob  stood 
before  Pharaoh. 

I  have  said  that  the  opening  salutation  of  the 
Egyptian  Pharaoh  was,  perhaps,  not  quite  what  the 
occasion  suggested.  How  he  bore  the  journey; 
how  he  felt  after  the  fatigues  of  travel;  when  had 
he  arrived ;  how  was  he  impressed  by  what  he  had 
already  seen  in  Egypt;  had  he  visited  any  of  the 
curiosities  and  renowned  places ;  such  remarks 
would  have  been  more  in  keeping  with  our  conven- 
tional code.  Instead  of  this,  however,  the  Pharaoh 
followed  his  natural  prompting  and  asked  of  the 
Patriarch  his  age.  He  saw  before  him  one  who 
evidently  had  come  a  long  way  on  life's  journey, 
and  had  not  much  further  to  go;  and  as  Jacob 
bowed  and  lifted  unsteady  hands  to  bless,  the  royal 


HOW    OLD    ART    THOU?  147 

Egyptian,  impressed  by  the  spectacle  of  the  aged 
pilgrim,  could  not  repress  his  curiosity,  and  inquired 
straightway,  "  How  old  art  thou  ?  "  And,  when 
we  turn  the  question  over  and  look  at  it  nar- 
rowly, it  was,  after  all,  a  deep  and  searching  one, 
reaching  down  and  taking  hold  of  serious  matters. 
A  profounder  meaning  attached  to  it,  by  far,  than 
to  that  other  question  with  which  Pharaoh  greeted 
Joseph's  brethren.  Of  them  he  inquired,  "  What 
is  your  occupation  ?  "  That  is  a  shallow  question 
compared  to  this,  "  How  old  art  thou  ?  "  The 
one  is  a  question  that  contemplates  subsistence, 
bread,  physical  comfort;  the  other  takes  hold  of 
immaterial,  spiritual  facts,  has  an  echo  of  eternity 
in  it,  startles  one  like  a  bell  at  midnight,  sounds  as 
if  from  5^onder  silent  shore  toward  which  our  keels 
are  heading.  Evidently  Pharaoh's  inquiry  of  Jacob 
lies  above  the  plane  of  practical  utility,  and  is 
intrinsically  a  moral  question,  —  at  least  in  its  deep- 
est meaning.  At  bottom  it  means :  How  long  have 
you  been  a  pilgrim  on  the  dusty  highway  of 
this  world?  how  many  milestones  have  you  already 
passed?  how  much  solid  experience  and  useful 
knowledge  and  great  inductions  have  you  garnered 
thus  far?  what  do  you  think  of  human  life  from 
your  present  standpoint?  how  do  you  feel  about  the 
possible  transformations  and  developments  of  the 
future?  how  old  art  thou?  Oh,  yes,  clearly  this  was 
a  comprehensive  question.     Whether  the  Pharaoh 


148  HOW    OLD    ART    THOU? 

consciously  comprised  all  these  critical  elements  in 
his  observation  and  perceived  the  drift  of  it,  whether 
it  was  simply  the  outburst  of  an  inquisitive  impulse, 
is  immaterial.  Whatever  his  motive  and  mental 
state,  his  question  was  none  the  less  deep,  philo- 
sophic, serious,  inasmuch  as  when  duly  interpreted 
it  concerns  man  as  a  creature  of  progression,  getting 
ready,  if  possible,  for  higher  forms,  and  another 
world  of  experience. 

Taking,  then,  this  matter  of  growth  and  devel- 
opment in  the  human  organism,  as  hinted  at  in  the 
text,  it  is  occult  and  difficult  of  complete  explana- 
tion. The  changes  which  take  place  in  any  indi- 
vidual as  he  passes  out  of  one  year  into  another  are 
imperceptible,  yet  so  radical  that,  as  the  years  accu- 
mulate upon  him,  scarcely  anything  save  personal 
identity  abides  intact.  The  compartments  of  the 
brain  unfold  and  organize  themselves  slowly,  and 
for  months  man  dwells  innocent  and  unknowing 
upon  the  lower  level  of  confiding  instinct  with  other 
animals.  Little  by  little,  and  as  the  process  which 
physiologists  call  differentiation  goes  forward,  one 
gradually  emerges  out  of  sheer  animalism  into 
self-consciousness,  the  power  of  discriminating  be- 
tween self  and  not-self,  and  recognizing  the  twain 
as  distinct  and  opposite.  Thence  he  pushes  on 
toward  farther  conquests ;  the  organs  grow  and 
discharge  their  functions ;  the  whole  economy  of 
the  man  matures;    there  is  an  increase  of  tissues, 


HOW    OLD    ART    THOU?  149 

a  larger  life  and  augmenting  strength,  until  a 
maximum  is  reached  and  decline  sets  in.  By  suc- 
cessive increments  man  passes  on  to  the  fulness  of 
his  stature  and  to  perfection  after  his  kind.  And 
when  organization  is  thus  complete,  it  stands  for 
a  brief  season  in  full  vigor  and  luxuriant  pulse, 
and  then  begins  to  slope  down  the  declivity.  This 
is  the  state  of  man.  The  body,  says  Aristotle,  is  in 
its  prime  from  the  age  of  thirty  to  thirty-five,  and 
the  mind  about  the  age  of  forty-nine,  —  the  seventh 
climacteric.  How  true  to  fact  this  calculation  may 
be  I  know  not,  but  it  is  a  dictum  of  that  great 
encyclopaedic  Greek.  At  any  rate,  the  individual 
integrates  and  waxes  toward  his  top  and  limit, 
which,  once  reached,  he  then  sinks  slowly  into  the 
shadows  of  senility  and  death.  This  is  the  ordinary 
acceptation,  as  every  one  knows,  of  the  phrase 
growing  old.  It  means,  practically,  that  the  ad- 
justments of  the  human  system  are  become  by  time  so 
worn,  rusty,  clogged,  as  to  give  signs  of  failure  and 
insufficient  action,  and  the  equilibrium  may  easily  be 
overset,  and  life,  as  we  know  it,  suspended;  the 
recuperative  force  gets  sluggish,  the  tendencies  that 
undermine  are  stronger  than  those  that  conserve, 
the  grasshopper  is  become  a  burden.  For  it  is  a 
truism  to  say,  that  in  order  to  the  preservation  of 
life  there  must  be  a  correspondence  between  the 
external  conditions  and  the  internal  energies,  and 
as  years  multiply  this  necessary  correspondence  be- 


150  HOW    OLD    ART    THOU? 

comes  constantly  more  precarious  and  more  easily- 
imperilled.  This  is  the  secret  of  old  age.  Man 
lies  open,  like  a  common,  upon  all  sides,  by  reason 
of  his  high  organization,  to  insidious  attacks,  dete- 
riorating agencies,  invisible  deleterious  influences, 
alighting  on  the  edges  and  eating  slowly  into  the 
very  heart  of  him,  and  so  bringing  on  collapse  and 
downfall.  Each  year  as  it  departs  does  not  leave 
you  quite  as  it  found  you,  but  affixes  a  scar,  inten- 
sifies a  weakness,  strains  a  sinew,  drops  some 
springing  seed  of  disintegration  which  in  due  time 
will  assert  itself,  or  if  none  of  this,  adds,  in  a  gen- 
eral way,  to  your  growing  inability  to  stand  the 
fret  and  strain  of  life.  Old  age  is  simply  the  cumu- 
lative effect  of  time  upon  our  human  structure,  its 
organs  and  functions,  its  faculties  and  their  powers. 
In  this  connection,  however,  it  is  worthy  of  remark 
that  one  may  grow  old  naturally  or  unnaturally  and 
prematurely.  In  large  communities  you  will  meet 
many  who  are  old  in  an  evil  sense,  older  than  by 
nature  they  are  authorized  or  expected  to  be.  Thus, 
they  know  more  about  the  crooked  and  depraved 
ways  of  this  world  than  they  are  called  to  know; 
they  have  been  long  graduated  in  the  school  of  scan- 
dal and  iniquity.  Such  indeed  is  their  proficiency  in 
this  bad  knowledge  that  they  are  quite  broken  even 
in  the  prime  of  manhood,  and  unfit  for  any  enterprise 
that  requires  concentration,  vigor,  and  purpose. 
Their  course  of  life  has  sapped  their  strength  and 


HOW    OLD    ART   THOU?  151 

stupefied  their  conscience.  An  innumerable  multi- 
tude of  human  beings  grow  old  and  worn  and  rickety 
by  reason  of  gross  habits,  and  courses  of  conduct  fit 
only  to  become  topics  of  subsequent  shame  and  re- 
morse. On  every  hand  you  see  men  and  women 
tending  toward  debility  as  the  result  of  luxurious 
indolence,  too  much  to  eat  and  drink  and  nothing 
to  do,  absorption  in  nugatory  trifles  and  senseless 
little  forms  of  etiquette  and  decrees  of  fashion. 

I  say,  one  may  grow  old  unnaturally,  too  early,  too 
soon,  the  eye  restless  and  disappointed,  the  fibre  and 
nerve  relaxed,  a  vague  sigh  escaping  now  and  again, 
the  lip  curled  in  cynical  contempt,  the  brow  clouded 
with  weariness  and  disgust  —  all  because  the  wine 
of  life  has  been  drawn  and  drunk,  greedily,  prema- 
turely, and  before  the  time.  It  is  not  an  uncommon 
sight  for  those  who  look  narrowly  into  the  face  of 
human  nature.  Again,  one  may  grow  old  as  the 
result  of  the  cares,  burdens,  and  distractions  of  life 
and  its  real  grievances.  Many  carry  such  loads,  do 
the  work  of  so  many  idle,  useless,  penurious  people, 
and  run  at  such  a  high  velocity  as  to  endanger  their 
machinery.  Active  minds  are  likely  to  drive  at  the 
top  of  their  working  power,  using  up,  so  to  speak, 
all  the  steam  for  the  cylinders,  so  that  none  escapes 
at  the  safety  valve;  and  so  amid  burning  cinders 
and  hot  gases  they  move  on  at  a  momentum  that 
threatens  a  breakdown.  By  unwise  expenditures 
and  impositions  upon  the  natural  constitution,  per- 


152  HOW    OLD    ART    THOU?' 

sons  often  overset  the  organic  balance.  Sometimes 
it  is  done  by  work,  of tener  by  worry ;  often,  too,  by 
an  artificial  and  luxurious  life  the  sap  and  surplus 
vigor  is  dried  and  consumed.  Anyway,  it  remains 
true  that  the  cares  and  anxieties  and  work  of  this 
world  plough  deep  furrows.  Push  in  among  the 
throng  of  men  and  see  how  rapidly  they  age,  not 
only  the  active,  practical,  victorious  men  and  women, 
but  quite  as  much  the  amateurs,  idlers,  spectators, 
lookers-on  upon  the  world's  motley  show.  How 
c|uickly  all  bronze  and  harden  and  begin  to  crumble ! 
The  eye  waxes  cold  and  lustreless  that  was  once  keen 
and  calculating;  the  ways  of  the  world,  its  rough 
and  tumble,  its  ups  and  downs,  take  the  spring  and 
hope  out  of  men ;  they  grow  silent  and  sad,  and 
retire  more  and  more  within  themselves.  Life  is  so 
strenuous;  its  competitions,  antagonisms,  tension, 
put  a  sharp  strain  upon  busy,  harassed,  perplexed 
souls,  and  the  mind  proves  an  expensive  tenant  for 
the  body. 

And  thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  individual 
perishes  little  by  little,  both  by  the  gradual  and  nor- 
mal changes  of  the  human  system  and  those  slow 
causes  which  in  course  of  time  disturb  the  equilib- 
rium, and  also  by  slow  suicide,  by  breaking  of  nat- 
ural laws,  by  excess  in  some  form.  Considered  as 
an  animal,  it  is  said  that  man  ought  to  live  one  hun- 
dred years.  With  care,  self-control,  sobriety,  and 
proper  regimen,  a  century  is  his  natural  term;   but 


HOW    OLD    ART    THOU?  153 

what  with  inherited  taints  and  weaknesses  and  self- 
inflicted  abuses  and  injuries,  he  is  thought  to  have 
made  a  splendid  run  if  he  touch  fourscore  years  and 
is  found  at  the  end  of  them  in  possession  of  his 
faculties.  In  fact,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
man  is  a  squanderer  of  himself,  wastes  his  natural 
wealth  and  capital,  and  dies,  in  most  cases,  too  soon. 
Again,  above  this  physical  plane  lies  the  mental 
and  moral  man,  and  concerning  him,  too,  it  is  pos- 
sible to  predicate  age.    For  a  certain  poet  has  said : 

"  We  live  in  deeds,  not  years, 
In  thoufjhts,  not  breaths, 
In  f'eelinfrs,  not  in  figures  on  a  dial. 
We  should  count  time  by  heart-throbs." 

If  this  theory  be  correct,  then  the  true  age  of  a  man 
is  not  registered  on  his  physical  frame,  but  rather  on 
the  walls  of  his  moral  nature.  In  order  to  ascertain 
how  old  one  is,  it  will  be  necessary  to  sound  the  soul 
and  to  inquire  concerning  such  elements  as  intel- 
ligence, self-knowledge,  self-control,  and  conduct. 
Pursuing  this  plan,  it  may  eventually  appear  that 
some  who  pass  for  old  are  still,  in  reality,  young 
and  immature,  while  conversely  the  young  in  years 
may  be  found  deeply  initiated  and  experienced.  It 
is  written  that  Hannibal  at  the  age  of  twenty-five 
led  the  armies  of  Carthage ;  he  was,  in  point  of  fact, 
older  than  most  of  his  veterans.  Alexander  of  Mace- 
don,  also,  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight  had  laid  the 
nations  under  tribute,  —  he  was  old  at  thirty-eight. 


154  HOW    OLD    ART    THOU? 

Charlemagne  at  thirty  years  was  master  of  France, 
Germany,  and  Italy,  and  the  most  enHghtened  sov- 
ereign of  his  time,  and  a  name  that  still  towers  above 
all  ordinary  fame.  Napoleon  at  twenty-seven  led 
his  Italian  campaign,  —  the  opening  of  his  great 
career,  —  but  he  was  older  at  twenty-seven  than 
most  men  ever  become,  i.  c,  he  understood  the 
world,  human  nature,  and  human  limitations.  Wil- 
liam Pitt  at  twenty-two  and  Edmund  Burke  at 
twenty-five  were  the  acknowledged  leaders  of  public 
opinion  and  foremost  men  of  their  time,  —  they  were 
old  while  young. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  age  is  not  necessarily  a  ques- 
tion of  years  and  does  not  depend  upon  the  date  of 
one's  birth.  In  its  inmost  sense  it  is  a  question  of 
mind,  character,  will-force,  personality.  It  means, 
How  much  have  you  learned  by  living?  how  many 
facts  have  you  gathered  and  of  what  kind  ?  are  you 
wiser  than  formerly?  have  you  more  skill,  address, 
tact,  in  meeting  life's  emergencies?  Like  a  wise 
man,  have  you  changed  your  mind  on  some  subjects? 
do  you  know  yourself  better  and  what  the  world  is 
likely  to  be  worth  to  you  and  what  you  can  reason- 
ably expect?  have  you  settled  any  great  principles, 
generalizations,  as  the  outcome  of  your  experience? 
These  and  the  like  are  the  units  and  items  which, 
mounting  up,  constitute  age  in  the  higher  significa- 
tion. Knowledge,  insight,  vision,  power  of  adapta- 
tion, a  resolute  moral  will,  a  clear  intellect,  a  con- 


HOW    OLD    ART    THOU?  155 

tented  spirit,  the  whole  man  adjusted  to  his  situation, 
—  these  are  what  determine  how  old  thou  art  and 
so  best  answer  Pharaoh's  question.  For  age,  duly- 
considered,  should  not  be  computed  in  days,  decades, 
climacterics,  but  in  force  and  beauty  of  character 
and  in  mental  and  moral  attitudes.  Time,  for  each 
of  us,  ought  to  mean  experience,  maturity,  ideas, 
capacity,  moral  power.  No  one  has  truly  attained 
unto  years  who  has  not  largeness  of  nature,  nobil- 
ity of  soul,  great  presentiments,  precious  hopes,  and 
who  does  not,  like  Jacob,  recognize  himself  as  a 
pilgrim  of  destiny.  You  are  yet  a  minor,  not  come 
to  manhood,  unless  you  can  entertain  high  thoughts, 
unless  life  seems  to  you  something  divine. 

I  care  not  how  many  years  one  has  numbered 
on  earth,  the  true  question  is.  What  is  he  fit  for? 
has  he  got  soul,  integrity,  magnanimity,  a  con- 
science, and  faith  in  God?  is  there  any  moral  gran- 
deur hanging  about  him?  what  has  life  done  for 
him?  what  has  time  taught  him?  For  this  is  the 
apparent  design  of  our  sojourn  here,  to  accumulate 
power  of  the  best  kind,  to  get  glimpses  and  reflexes 
from  the  great  beyond  that  shall  light  our  steps  to 
its  solemn  portal.  In  this  sense,  then,  How  old  art 
thou  ? 


PERMANENT   VALUES 

Bitt  godliness  ivith  contentment  is  great  gain. 

For  we  broitght  nothing  into  this  -world,  and  it  is  certain  ive 

can  carry  nothing  out.  —  I  TIMOTHY  vi,  6,  7. 

HOW  to  make  the  most  of  his  ministry  is 
the  chief  subject  of  Apostle  Paul's  two 
Epistles  to  Timothy.  But  occasionally  he 
throws  in  a  remark  that  reaches  beyond  Timothy 
and  his  time  and  concerns  all  men,  everywhere. 
Much  in  the  Bible  is  of  local  and  temporary  interest, 
and  not  of  permanent  use  and  universal  adaptation, 
such  as  the  ceremonial  law  of  the  Hebrews,  and 
some  tracts  of  their  history.  But  most  of  it  has  a 
universal  quality  which  renders  Holy  Scripture  ap- 
plicable to  human  condition  always  and  gives  it  a 
perennial  property. 

In  the  case  under  consideration,  while  counselling 
young  Timothy  concerning  his  pastoral  work,  Saint 
Paul  finds  that  his  thought  abuts  upon  a  general 
principle,  which  he  directly  proceeds  to  announce. 
For  all  men  are  not  pastors  or  bishops,  but  all  have 
a  common  humanity  and  liabilities  resulting  from 
that  fact;  so  that  what  might  fit  Timothy  or  any 
religious  teacher,  might  not  exactly  fit  all  men,  in 
their  multiplex  relations. 


PERMANENT   VALUES  157 

In  the  text  Paul  comes  forward  with  one  of  the 
great  fundamental  axioms  of  human  experience. 
For  a  moment  he  leaves  Timothy  and  Ephesus  and 
proceeds  to  announce  a  proposition  of  world-wide 
range  and  applicability  —  "  Godliness  with  content- 
ment is  great  gain.  For  we  brought  nothing  into  this 
world,  and  it  is  certain  we  can  carry  nothing  out." 
Here,  clearly,  is  a  remark  whose  line  reaches  far 
beyond  that  contemporary  age,  has  been  true  ever 
since,  and  will  continue  to  be  true,  so  far  as  we  can 
see,  as  long  as  man  dwells  under  this  present  order 
of  things.  It  is  a  good  illustration  of  Paul's  method. 
He  blends  the  particular  and  universal,  the  lim- 
ited and  local,  with  that  which  has  no  boundaries,' 
that  which  is  strictly  personal  with  that  which  is 
broadly  human.  These  elements  are  interw^oven  in 
his  style  with  easy  facility.  From  some  simple  cir- 
cumstance he  evokes  a  capital  truth ;  out  of  a  small 
seed  he  brings  forth  an  umbrageous  tree ;  the  corner- 
stone is  often  unpretending,  while  the  completed 
structure  is  magnificent. 

In  the  case  under  consideration  Paul  warns  Tim- 
othy against  a  certain  class  of  disputatious,  con- 
ceited persons  whose  atmosphere  was  controversial 
strife,  word-jugglers,  logic-choppers,  adepts  in  the 
art  of  wrangling  but  meanwhile  destitute  of  spiritual 
convictions ;  men  wdio  rejoiced  in  logomachies  that 
had  no  valuable  outcome,  save  only  the  reaping  of 
an  ephemeral  local  reputation.     The  early  church 


158  PERMANENT   VALUES 

appears  to  have  been  assailed  by  such  characters,  who 
parodied  the  doctrines  of  rehgion  and  gave  them 
false  and  pernicious  interpretations.  Now  and  then 
some  one  of  them  would  promulgate  an  improve- 
ment upon  the  gospel,  or  controvert  a  leading  posi- 
tion laid  down  by  Paul  and  the  Apostles.  These 
empirics  had  evidently  arrived  in  Ephesus,  and  Paul 
advises  Timothy  not  to  embark  upon  any  discussion 
with  them,  or  envy  their  small  gains,  either  in 
popularity  or  in  fees.  For  religion,  he  says,  is  not 
gain,  in  the  mercenary  sense  of  the  word;  it  is 
not  worldly  success.  It  is  gain  in  the  highest  accep- 
tation, but  not  in  the  lower  and  sordid.  And  this 
premiss  Paul  proves  by  showing  that  gain,  in  this 
material  definition  of  it,  as  money  value,  comfortable 
sensations,  large  possessions,  is  simply  a  feature  of 
the  current  order  of  things,  belongs  strictly  to  this 
present  world.  No  man  carries  it  with  him  into 
the  next  stage  of  being ;  he  leaves  it  behind.  Hence, 
he  argues,  it  cannot  be  essential  to  religion  and  to 
the  deepest  needs  of  man.  It  must  be  incidental.  It 
does  not  go  into  soul-building.  We  did  not  bring 
it  with  us,  and  we  shall  not  take  it  away.  Yet  while 
this  is  true,  the  Apostle  insists  that  the  idea  of  gain 
does  enter,  in  some  form  of  it,  into  religion  and 
must  not  be  excluded.  Godliness  and  contentment 
are  real  values.  The  temporary  success  of  false 
teachers  in  the  church  gives  him  the  cue,  opens  up 
this  higher  and  nobler  truth ;   that  a  person  who  has 


PERMANENT   VALUES  159 

enough  religious  life  to  render  him  satisfied  and 
happy  in  this  tangled  world  of  confusions  and  per- 
plexities is  better  off  than  wealth  can  make  him. 
He  has,  in  his  religious  hope,  an  enduring  substance. 
Hence  he  has  no  occasion  for  envy  or  bitterness. 

Observe,  the  statement  is  guarded.  It  is  not  god- 
liness alone,  nor  is  it  a  contented  spirit,  taken  by 
itself,  but  the  two  together.  The  inference  clearly 
is,  that  they  might  exist  separately,  at  least  to  a 
degree.  This,  no  doubt,  is  true.  Probably  there  are 
not  a  few  men  and  women  in  this  world  who  may 
be  described  as  having  faith  in  God,  in  a  particular 
Providence,  in  a  future  glorious  life,  who  are  yet 
deficient  in  the  grace  of  contentment.  Godliness 
may  exist,  in  a  certain  grade  or  quality,  to  a  certain 
altitude,  so  to  speak,  without  drawing  along  in  its 
train  a  peaceful  and  satisfied  state  of  mind.  This 
seems  clear.  There  are,  confessedly,  godly  men  and 
women  whose  voice  is  quavery  and  sepulchral  and 
their  look  far  from  sunny  and  hopeful.  They  do 
not  appear  to  be  happy,  probably  are  not.  Some 
dark  history  or  secret  sorrow  throws  a  shadow  on 
their  faces.  If  it  be  the  part  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion to  fling  light  and  joy  and  hope  into  the 
human  heart,  then  something  is  wrong  with  them. 
Either  they  have  not  got  enough  of  the  divine  prin- 
ciple, or  else  there  is  some  invincible  twist  or  taint 
in  the  native  temperament  which  defeats  or  obscures 
its  operation.     Again,  there  are  those  w4io  have  no 


i6o  PERMANENT   VALUES 

conception  of  religion,  no  theory  of  the  world,  its 
origin  or  end,  no  particular  faith  in  anything  trans- 
cending the  present  life,  who  appear  to  be  quite 
satisfied  both  with  themselves  and  their  surround- 
ings. They  sing  like  the  bird,  they  chirp  like  the 
cricket,  they  leap  like  the  grasshopper.  They  take 
things  as  they  come,  and  everything  easy.  They  are 
laughing  philosophers.  It  is  surely  not  the  power 
of  religion,  for  they  confess  they  have  none;  it  is 
temperament,  the  gift  of  nature,  a  happy  mixture  of 
the  elements  with  them.  They  possess  the  content- 
ment without  the  godliness.  So  that  the  distinction 
made  by  Paul  is  a  significant  and  valid  one.  He  does 
not  isolate  godliness  and  glorify  it,  taken  singly  and 
alone,  for  one  might  go  moping  through  life  a 
bowed  bulrush,  a  withered  ascetic,  a  weeping  Rachel, 
a  bereaved,  inconsolable  Jacob.  One  might  make 
his  life  one  long  doleful  Psalm-tune.  By  reason  of 
some  natural  infirmity,  notwithstanding  his  pro- 
found convictions  of  a  religious  sort,  he  might  be 
incurably  addicted  to  grumbling,  moaning,  sighing, 
bewailing  himself  and  his  ill  fortune  and  the  general 
state  of  the  world,  —  an  incurable  pessimist,  —  so 
that  people  would  flee  from  him,  seek  shelter  from 
him  as  from  a  sudden  shower,  or  any  untoward 
accident  or  infliction.  In  other  words,  godliness 
must  be  carried  to  a  certain  high  power,  as  the 
mathematicians  say.  There  must  be  enough  of  it, 
in  volume  and  force,  and  the  quality  must  be  such 


PERMANENT   VALUES  i6i 

as  to  work  serenity,  hopefulness,  confidence  in  the 
love  and  power  of  God  and  in  the  course  of  His 
Providence.  It  must  be  godhness  manifest  in  con- 
tentment before  it  can  disclose  its  true  nature  and 
mount  to  its  highest  note.  This  is  its  perfect  work, 
this  is  the  legitimate  tendency  and  outcome  of  vital 
religion  in  the  soul,  —  to  make  one  happy,  joyous. 
It  works  toward  composure  and  contentment. 

Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  does  Paul  applaud  sheer 
contentment  as  such.  It  should  be  shot  through 
with  a  spiritual  strain.  It  is  always  relevant  to  in- 
quire whence  one's  contentment  arises.  The  ox  is 
contented.  The  swine  also,  apparently,  have  attained 
unto  tranquillity  and  repose  of  spirit.  All  the  tribes 
that  roam  and  browse  below  the  equator  line  of 
rationality  and  conscience  are  satisfied  with  their 
condition,  as  far  as  we  know.  But  with  them  it  is 
organic,  constitutional,  necessitated,  fatal.  It  has 
no  reflective  or  moral  base.  So  man  likewise  may 
rest  poised  on  pure  sensations.  And  in  order  to 
define  one  and  to  ascertain  to  what  description  he 
answers,  it  is  important  to  inquire  the  ground  of 
his  satisfactions.  What  is  he  contented  with  ?  What 
fills  him  ?  Do  his  highest  gratifications  spring  from 
the  side  of  animal  appetite  and  physical  well-being, 
or  from  mental  activity,  benevolent  impulse,  from  his 
moral  powers  and  devotional  moods,  from  the  play 
of  intellect  and  heart?  This  is  a  crucial  question. 
It  goes  to  the  root  of  one's  nature.     A  man  may 


i62  PERMANENT   VALUES 

conceivably  be  happiest  while  he  is  eating,  drinking, 
driving,  dancing,  amassing  money.  One  may  lead 
the  life  of  a  peacock,  or  brilliant  bird  of  Paradise, 
and  be  thoroughly  contented  with  it  all,  having  no 
ambition,  putting  forth  no  effort  beyond  the  mere 
looking  upon  this  shifting  scenery  of  human  society, 
seeing  and  being  seen.  Very  significantly  indeed 
does  Paul  say,  "  Godliness  with  contentment  is  great 
gain."  That  is,  a  man's  life  in  this  world  ought  to 
have  a  divine  or  supernatural  ground;  it  ought 
to  bottom  upon  certain  tremendous,  transcendent 
truths;  it  ought  to  carry  supernatural  elements;  it 
ought  to  assume  a  system  of  facts  embedded  in  the 
nature  of  things,  in  the  character  of  God,  in  the 
normal  development  of  the  soul,  and  in  the  moral 
constitution  of  the  world.  This  is  the  point  he 
labors.  He  applauds  that  man  who  has  such  a  clear 
insight  of  the  genius  and  practical  tendency  of  the 
Christian  religion  as  to  make  him  happy,  even  in 
spite  of  unpromising  and  straitened  conditions,  and 
dim,  narrow  outlooks. 

And,  indeed,  this  was  the  lot  of  the  bulk  of  the 
first  Christians.  The  inventory  of  their  goods  was 
small  and  their  revenue  meagre.  In  many  instances 
they  were  abjectly  poor.  So  far  as  elegance  and 
the  comfortable  commodities  of  life  go,  they  were 
largely  strangers  to  that  experience.  Christian 
doctrines  and  hopes  were  adapted  to  meet  the  case 
of  such.     The  gospel  does  not  preach  socialism;    it 


PERMANENT   VALUES  163 

does  not  discourage  labor  with  a  view  to  a  compe- 
tence or  even  wealth.  It  bids  the  rich  be  generous 
and  the  poor  industrious  and  contented.  It  tends 
to  draw  aU  classes  together  and  make  them  recipro- 
cally helpful  by  laying  down  the  important  principle 
that  man  is  in  transitu,  that  this  life  is  not  the 
terminus,  that  this  is  not  the  final  dispensation,  that 
the  outward  badges,  conventions,  and  orders  that 
obtain  in  this  world  are  not  permanent  and  indelible. 
It  lays  the  accent  upon  what  one  is,  not  upon  what 
he  has.  It  insists  upon  personal  cjualities,  the  dis- 
position, the  tastes,  the  centrality  of  an  individual, 
his  temper  and  inwardness;  these  are  essential  in 
the  view  of  Christianity.  The  Christian  theory  pic- 
tures the  whole  race  of  man  as  pilgrims  together, 
marching  toward  an  undiscovered  country.  One, 
perchance,  has  a  more  capacious  wallet,  stouter 
shoes,  a  cunningly  carved  walking  stick,  a  fuller 
outfit,  daintier  rations  than  another;  but  the  gospel 
takes  no  account  of  these  artificial  distinctions.  It 
represents  men  as  bound  for  eternity,  and  the  vital 
question  is,  How  will  these  wayfarers  look  upon  this 
thing  called  life?  Will  they  tarry  in  the  inns  and 
temporary  shelters  they  reach  on  the  road,  or  will 
they  use  the  world  as  not  abusing  it,  clothing  and 
housing  themselves  with  such  materials  as  they  find, 
constantly  moving  on  toward  a  house  not  made  with 
hands  ?  Godliness  with  contentment,  —  this  is  the 
keynote  of  the  whole  system ;  life  a  harbor  in  which 


i64  PERMANENT    VALUES 

our  immortal  barks  ride  at  anchor  for  a  brief  season 
and  then  head  out  over  trackless  waters. 

Hence,  as  a  corollary  to  this,  the  gospel  says  to 
the  rich  man.  If  you  must  be  rich,  do  not  pamper 
yourself,  put  your  pounds  out  at  usury,  make  friends 
of  your  wealth,  so  that  when  you  fail,  it  will  not  be 
an  irreparable  failure.  To  all  the  comfortable,  well- 
fed,  luxurious,  those  who  live  amid  the  flash  and 
roar  and  excitement  and  artificiality  of  life,  the 
gospel  cries,  Take  care ;  do  not  think  to  build  out  of 
the  brittle  materials  of  this  illusory  world;  do  not 
make  fashion,  display,  gold,  social  distinction,  earthly 
ambitions,  your  gods.  For  you  brought  noth- 
ing hither,  and  you  shall  take  nothing  hence.  And 
thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  practical  effect  of 
religion  is  to  pluck  up  envy  between  man  and  man, 
to  quench  inordinate  ambition,  to  take  away  discon- 
tent between  classes,  between  master  and  servant, 
capital  and  labor,  employer  and  employed.  Men 
are  caught  by  the  glitter  of  accidental  distinctions. 
One  half  the  world  considers  itself  grievously 
wronged  by  the  other  half.  People  are  constantly 
muttering  because  they  have  not  some  chance,  ad- 
vantage, privilege,  accorded  to  some  one  else  no 
more  deserving  than  they.  The  world  has  not  yet 
guessed  the  secret  of  Jesus,  has  not  sufficiently  pon- 
dered Paul's  definition  of  practical  religion,  —  god- 
liness with  contentment,  —  which,  being  interpreted, 
signifies  simply  standing  bravely  in  our  lot,  doing 


PERMANENT   VALUES  165 

our  work,  making  the  most  of  our  talent,  believing, 
meanwhile,  that  all  things  are  at  work  upon  our 
immortality,  shaping,  preparing,  fitting  us  for  its 
crown. 

Paul  insists  that  one  chief  reason  why  men  should 
not  make  themselves  unhappy  over  the  inequalities 
that  prevail  in  this  world  is  that  the  whole  history 
of  one's  accumulations  is  comprehended  within  the 
narrow  range  of  the  present  life.  We  brought 
nothing  here,  and  what  we  gather  we  shall  leave 
behind.  It  is  incontrovertibly  true  that  man  brings 
nothing  with  him  into  the  world  in  the  sense  of  real 
property,  tangible,  ponderable  things,  of  weight  and 
measure,  of  exchange,  of  import  and  export,  no  coin, 
no  credit  paper,  no  promissory  notes,  no  bills  of 
exchange,  nothing  that  can  become  matter  of  busi- 
ness transaction.  Man  starts  upon  his  life  journey 
in  abject  feebleness  and  ignorance,  without  knowl- 
edge either  of  himself  or  of  his  surroundings.  He 
knows  neither  where  he  is  nor  that  he  is.  In  act  and 
in  fact  he  brings  nothing  with  him.  Yet,  although 
weak  and  ignorant  beyond  description,  there  is  this 
peculiarity  about  him,  that  he  carries  an  undeveloped 
capacity  for  knowledge,  power,  morality,  and  mani- 
fold achievement.  So  that  while  he  arrives  empty- 
handed,  so  far  as  goods  and  chattels  are  concerned, 
he  is  a  creature  full  of  unfulfilled  prophecy  and 
dawning  promise.  His  talent  is  wrapped  in  a  nap- 
kin, to  be  unfolded  upon  occasion  and  by  degrees. 


1 66  PERMANENT   VALUES 

He  is  full  of  nascent  power,  full  of  tiny  rivulets  that 
may  grow  into  rivers.  Man  only  brings  with  him 
possibilities,  nothing  finished,  whole,  and  perfect. 
He  is  born  with  given  faculties  and  aptitudes,  and 
the  whole  process  of  education  is  to  discover  pre- 
cisely what  these  may  be  and  to  draw  them  out  into 
exercise.  When  you  say  of  a  person  that  he  is 
gifted,  the  reference  is  to  some  natural  endowment 
or  power  confided  to  him  in  larger  measure  than  to 
most,  and  susceptible  of  indefinite  expansion  by  op- 
portunity and  exertion.  It  is  an  inscrutable  secret, 
yet  it  seems  true,  that  some  human  beings  bring  into 
life  rudiments  and  tendencies  by  force  of  which  one 
can  do  with  ease  and  spontaneity  what  another  can 
only  effect  with  great  effort,  and  a  third  never  can 
do  at  all.  With  one,  an  act,  exercise,  calculation,  is 
almost  unreflective  and  comes  naturally ;  he  takes  in 
the  situation  directly,  moves  with  ease,  tact,  and 
mastery  through  the  subject.  To  another  it  is  a 
maze,  a  medley,  a  jungle ;  he  is  at  home  in  a  differ- 
ent element.  Minds  have  different  aptitudes.  There 
is  such  a  thing  as  original  bias.  Shakespeare  and 
Dante  were  born  to  be  poets ;  Fox  and  Webster  to 
be  orators;  Juvenal,  Swift,  Voltaire,  were  born 
satirists;  Bossuet  and  Chalmers  were  born  to  be 
preachers;  Phidias  and  Michael  Angelo  were  born 
to  be  creative  minds  in  the  realm  of  art.  Each 
brought  with  him  a  certain  temperament,  an  im- 
plicit talent.     Doubtless  there  is  some  one  plan  of 


PERMANENT   VALUES  167 

life  in  which  each  would  best  succeed,  could  he  only 
find  it,  which  by  no  means  always  happens.  ]\Iany 
possess  power  which  will  never  be  disclosed  by  reason 
of  the  tyranny  of  circumstances.  They  have  not 
found  the  true  fulcrum ;  they  are  out  of  adjustment 
with  their  surroundings;  they  have  ability,  but  it  is 
not  for  what  they  are  trying  to  do.  Hence  the 
failures  of  life. 

But  observe  that  these  invisible,  spiritual  forces 
and  properties  are  alone  destined  to  survive.  This  is 
Paul's  meaning.  What  each  has  accomplished  in  the 
sphere  of  the  intellect,  of  the  moral  emotions,  of  the 
conscience,  —  this  will  stand.  Whatever  one  has 
done  for  his  mind,  for  his  heart,  for  the  fashioning 
of  his  will,  for  the  perfection  of  his  character,  for 
the  mellowing  and  rectifying  of  his  affections,  for 
the  control  of  passion,  for  the  drill  of  those  powers 
and  that  sensibility  which  bring  him  into  relation  with 
God,  —  this  will  persist  and  endure.  He  brought 
these  high  capacities  with  him,  and  he  will  take  away 
both  the  original  principal  and  the  accrued  interest. 
This  is  Christian  doctrine.  It  teaches  that  a  man 
is  not  worth  a  dime  an  hour  after  he  is  dead,  as  the 
world  computes  wealth.  Pie  goes  into  yon  vast, 
dim,  untravelled  country  a  bankrupt,  insolvent.  A 
trembling  beggar,  he  knocks  at  the  massive  portal  of 
eternity.  Without  a  gem  to  bedeck  his  person  or  a 
shred  to  clothe  his  shivering  spirit,  he  enters  within 
the  vale  and  goes  forward  to  meet  the  great  crisis. 


i68  PERMANENT   VALUES 

But  he  carries  his  rational  soul,  whatever  that  means, 
the  complement  of  his  mental  furniture  and  facul- 
ties, his  self-consciousness,  his  memory,  his  personal 
identity,  his  tastes,  preferential  choices,  moral  char- 
acter, as  these  have  been  matured  in  the  life-process ; 
these  are  taken  up  and  clothed  afresh. 

Behold,  I  show  you  a  mystery.  The  human  spirit 
takes  a  direction  and  gathers  a  momentum  in  this 
world,  by  force  of  which  it  keeps  moving  on  to  the 
plane  of  the  great  future.  We  make  our  choices 
here;  we  build  our  character;  we  enrich  or  im- 
poverish ourselves,  as  moral  natures;  we  set  up 
permanent  dispositions.  And  with  this  outfit,  like 
emigrants  embarking  for  an  unknown  shore,  we 
weigh  anchor  and  head  out  for  the  great  beyond. 
What  shall  happen  along  the  endless  future  no 
prophet  can  tell.  There  are  no  rocks  on  this  planet 
high  enough  for  a  Balaam  to  sweep  God's  eternity 
and  see  the  trend  of  His  purpose.  We  can  only  say 
that  the  vicious  man  carries  his  evil  propensities 
with  him,  so  far  as  appears ;  the  filthy  are  filthy  still. 
He  who  has  lived  a  life  of  selfishness,  of  grossness, 
of  carnality,  of  profanity,  has  woven  around  him  a 
moral  atmosphere,  and  created  a  character  concern- 
ing which  the  presumption  is  that  it  will  abide, 
unless  motives  and  opportunities  to  the  contrary  are 
furnished  him  hereafter,  of  which  Christianity  opens 
no  satisfactory  hint  or  glimpse.  The  good  man 
carries  his  goodness,  the  honest  man  his  honesty,  the 


PERMANENT   VALUES  169 

truthful  his  veracity,  the  benevolent  nature  his  gen- 
erosity, the  sensualist  his  animalism,  each  as  he 
thinks  in  his  heart  enters  into  the  unseen.  But  be- 
yond the  pale  we  cannot  track  them.  Where  they 
live,  how  they  live,  is  perfectly  inscrutable.  They 
sail  down  the  rim  of  the  horizon  and  out  of  sight 
with  their  freight  of  mental  powers  and  moral  senti- 
ments, and  this  is  the  last  we  see  of  the  voyagers. 
Man  carries  over  nothing  else.  If  intelligence  does 
not  survive,  if  imagination,  if  memory,  if  benevolent 
impulses,  if  patience,  meekness,  faith,  be  not  im- 
mortal, do  not  flourish  erect  and  ebullient,  in  another 
sphere,  if  somehow  they  do  not  outlive  the  death- 
shock  and  come  to  consciousness  and  activity  and 
clothe  themselves  in  appropriate  vestures  beyond 
time,  then  we  can  conceive  of  nothing  that  does 
attain  unto  this  distinction. 

What  a  serious  aspect  the  Christian  idea  flings 
upon  man's  life  here !  How  little  it  makes  of  what 
men  make  most  of !  How  completely  it  cancels  and 
abolishes  those  material  values  and  passing  tem- 
poralities upon  which  men  felicitate  themselves,  lay- 
ing stress  rather  upon  ethical  imperatives,  the  great 
elemental  powers  and  passions  of  the  soul  and  its 
potential  development.  We  brought  nothing  hither, 
we  shall  carry  nothing  hence. 

The  philosophy  called  Idealism  teaches  that  mat- 
ter does  not  exist  save  by,  in,  and  for  mind.  That 
is,  if  there  were  no  mind,  no  intelligence  in  the 


170  PERMANENT   VALUES 

universe,  either  human  or  divine,  there  would  be  no 
such  thing  as  matter.  Very  possible.  Mind  is  the 
supreme  category,  the  supreme  dynamic  and  chief 
interest.  What  it  is,  how  it  arrived  hither,  how  it 
came  to  be,  —  this  is  one  of  the  eternal  problems. 
Mind  has  somehow  alighted  on  the  earth  and  has 
wrought  this  prodigious,  wondrous  civilization,  its 
towering  chimneys  and  vast  material  development, 
its  lofty  philosophies  and  literatures,  its  great  virtues 
and  heroisms.  And  mind  is  the  greatest  thing  on 
earth,  and  the  most  abysmal  and  mysterious.  More- 
over, there  are  thinkers  wdio  find  in  the  bare  fact 
of  its  arrival  hither  an  argument  for  its  survival 
and  continuance,  and  for  what  is  called  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul.  For,  consider  this  indubitable 
certainty,  that  man's  intellectual  powers,  his  whole 
mental  outfit,  all  that  any  one  has  it  in  him  to  do 
and  to  be,  is  originally  enclosed  in  a  cell,  and  across 
this  fragile,  tottering  plank,  so  to  speak,  makes  pas- 
sage out  of  the  night  of  the  unknown  into  the  actual 
of  the  present. 

Now,  then,  there  are  those  who  suggest  —  and  it  is 
a  cogent  argument  —  that  if  God,  as  matter  of  phys- 
iological fact,  commits  the  powers  and  possibilities 
of  the  human  spirit  provisionally  to  something  that 
is  less  and  lower  than  brain,  less  complex  and 
elaborate,  more  primitive,  more  simple,  it  is  quite 
conceivable  that  He  may  dispense  with  brain  and 
nervous  system  also,  when  the  time  comes,  when  the 


PERMANENT   VALUES  171 

next  stage  in  the  evolution  and  advance  of  the  human 
spirit  is  at  hand.  It  is  a  favorite  argument  with 
materialists  that  thought  and  brain  are  inseparable, 
move  forward  pari  passu,  with  equal  step ;  the  decay 
of  the  one  is  the  decline  of  the  other,  the  dissolution 
of  the  one  is  the  extinction  of  the  other.  This  is  a 
plausible  objection.  Meanwhile  it  is  well  enough  to 
remember  that  the  powers  and  faculties  of  every 
individual,  the  strongest  intellects  of  our  race,  the 
poets,  prophets,  saints,  metaphysicians,  mystics,  ar- 
tists, statesmen,  discoverers,  thinkers  and  workers,  in 
every  department,  —  all  that  each  or  any  of  them 
was  destined  to  do  or  to  be,  their  potential  qualities, 
powers,  and  achievements,  once  lay  enfolded  in  a 
form  of  matter  far  inferior  to  a  human  brain,  and 
that  would  give  no  promise  of  such  a  magnificent 
organ  to  one  who  did  not  know  what  was  coming. 
True,  man  brought  nothing  into  this  world,  yet 
somehow  he  came  hither  himself,  —  but  whence  and 
how  — •  Ah,  that  is  the  crux,  one  of  the  enigmas 
of  the  Sphinx. 

Nor,  taking  the  whole  case  together,  is  there  any 
greater  unlikelihood,  antecedently,  of  the  survival 
and  conscious  life  of  the  human  soul,  apart  from  its 
present  envelope  and  connections,  than  there  is 
that  it  could  come  safely  out  of  the  dark  void  and 
ghostly  glimmer  of  the  unknown.  God  may  easily 
make  provision  for  the  human  spirit  in  the  great 
future,   notwithstanding  our  scepticism.     We  may 


172  PERMANENT   VALUES 

infer  this  from  what  He  has  already  done.  If,  as 
matter  of  incontrovertible  fact,  He  has  fashioned 
man's  life  out  of  unlikely  and  disproportionate  ma- 
terials and  started  it  from  a  mere  rudiment  and 
germ,  He  may,  in  turn,  discard  this  and  commit  the 
soul  to  another  vehicle,  to  a  finer  organism.  Nature 
is  by  no  means  clear  upon  this  high  theme,  but  it 
throws  out  hints  and  flashes.  I  deny  that  it  is  all 
in  favor  of  the  philosophy  of  materialism;  on  the 
contrary,  it  raises  a  presumption,  it  hints  at  the  pos- 
sibility that  what  has  been  may  be  again,  and  that 
man's  present  outfit  is  only  the  seed,  the  egg  that 
carries  and  transmits  his  true  life  into  a  more  perfect 
form.  At  any  rate,  there  is  a  striking  analogy  for 
this  in  what  has  already  happened  in  the  case  of 
every  individual.  And  the  practical  point  is,  that 
this  Ego,  this  entity,  this  self  which  you  are,  is  all, 
absolutely  all,  that  you  will  take  hence  with  you. 
Somehow,  by  some  marvellous,  inscrutable,  divine 
constitution  of  things  you  have  arrived  here.  No 
philosopher  can  explain  it.  Birth,  heredity,  natural 
laws,  —  nothing  really  explains  it  fundamentally ; 
out  of  the  vast  and  still  eternity  the  generations  of 
mankind  troop  over  a  frail,  shadowy  bridge  into  the 
light  of  reflective  life,  and  into  these  noisy  years. 
They  bring  nothing  save  nascent  powers,  prodigious 
possibilities,  a  bright  promise,  —  all  is  formless,  in- 
choate, embryonic  in  the  potential  stage.  Moreover, 
all  they  do  here,  of  enduring  significance  and  value, 


PERMANENT   VALUES  173 

is  to  augment,  educate,  and  enrich  this  incipient 
manhood,  these  swehing,  budding  bulbs  of  promise 
and  of  hope.  This  is  the  critical  interest  that  hovers 
around  every  human  career.  It  is  what  one  may 
accomplish  by  way  of  corroborating,  refining,  puri- 
fying, perfecting  the  only  part  of  him  that  can  truly 
live,  that  will  go  hence,  that  may  receive  applause, 
promotion,  by  and  by. 

Take  the  case  of  one  who  lives  to  feed  his  natural 
appetites  at  the  expense  of  his  spiritual  rudiment, 
and  he  is  on  a  false  scent.  He  is  expending  himself 
on  what  cannot  stand.  He  is  like  one  who  pays  out 
money  for  unnecessary  scaffolding  and  stints  the 
materials  for  the  building.  A  prosperous  man  with- 
out God,  a  sensualist,  in  any  form,  without  God, 
one  who  has  contrived  to  make  himself  a  place  and 
a  name  in  the  world,  but  without  God,  without  reli- 
gious convictions  and  a  religious  hope,  without  any 
care  for  the  things  of  the  spirit,  without  communion 
with  the  unseen,  without  any  thoughts  that  wander 
through  eternity  and  take  hold  of  its  illimitable 
periods  and  superlative  issues  and  solemn  decisions, 
—  one  of  this  description  is  losing  his  time ;  he  is 
anxious  and  careful  over  things  he  cannot  take  with 
him.  All  that  we  see,  all  the  processes  of  society, 
the  implements  of  labor,  the  machinery  and  appli- 
ances of  life,  all  human  occupations  and  responsi- 
bilities are  simply  designed  to  serve  the  spirit.  They 
are  not  fixtures;   they  will  fall  from  around  us  as 


174  PERMANENT    VALUES 

the  growing  corn  bursts  its  sheath,  as  the  shell  falls 
from  the  angelical  butterfly. 

Dying  creatures  passing  with  every  pulse-beat 
into  the  presence  of  transcendent  mysteries,  the 
great  thing  'for  us  is  to  save  what  is  salvable,  to 
cultivate  what  may  grow,  to  conserve  what  will  live 
and  flourish.  Hence  Jesus  says,  "  Seek  ye  first  the 
kingdom  of  God,"  and  again,  "  What  shall  it  profit 
a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own 
soul?  "  Meditate  on  these  things,  take  an  inventory 
in  an  honest  hour  of  your  possessions,  count  how 
many  of  them  you  expect  to  carry  out  with  you. 
Consider  carefully  also  what  you  are  doing  with 
them  here  and  now.  For  it  is  possible  to  make 
friends  of  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness.  It  is 
possible  to  use  this  world  as  not  abusing  it.  You 
may  live  for  the  imperishable,  for  immortality,  for 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  for  the  kingdom  that  cannot 
be  moved.  If  you  can  carry  out  nothing  material 
and  tangible  with  you,  you  may  yet  go  forward 
yourself,  enriched,  enlarged,  ennobled  by  all  the  dis- 
cipline and  experience  of  life  to  receive  the  plaudit: 
"  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant." 


THE    COST   OF    PROGRESS 

And  they  said  itnto  Moses,  Because  there  were  no  graves  in 
Egypt,  hast  thou  taken  us  away  to  die  in  the  wilderness  ?  — 
Exodus  xiv,  ii. 

STRONG  feeling  found  vent  in  this  sharp 
speech  of  the  fugitive  Hebrews  against 
Moses,  as  of  men  who  had  been  deceived  and 
led  out  on  a  fool's  errand.  Powerful  emotions, 
anger,  disappointment,  mortification,  frustrated  hope 
wrung  from  them  the  bitter,  biting  sarcasm  of  the 
text.  Their  situation  was  indeed  critical.  En- 
camped by  the  Red  Sea,  they  espied  on  the  horizon, 
in  a  smoky,  ominous  cloud,  the  Pharaoh  and  his 
army  in  hot  pursuit.  It  was  an  hour  of  panic  and 
confusion  in  the  Hebrew  host,  and  there  was  no 
time  to  be  lost.  The  deep  sea  in  front  and  the  in- 
censed Egyptian  behind  made  a  conjuncture  of  perils 
calculated  to  appal  courage  and  tax  all  the  resources 
of  strategy.  Moreover,  when  they  reflected  that 
Moses  was  responsible  for  their  sorry  plight,  indig- 
nation waxed  fierce,  and  leaped  out  in  a  fiery  bolt  of 
rebuke  and  resentment  against  their  great  captain. 
They  taunted  him  with  the  miscarriage  of  his  plan, 
they  reminded  him  of  their  aversion  to  leaving  Egypt, 
and  flung  up  against  him  the  caustic  jeer,  inquiring 


176  THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS 

ironically  whether  there  were  no  graves  in  Egypt, 
that  they  must  come  out  to  be  buried  in  the  Red  Sea 
or  annihilated  by  Pharaoh.  And,  taking  human 
nature  as  it  stands,  largely  composed  of  ignorance, 
timidity,  fickleness,  sloth,  the  attitude  of  these  run- 
away Hebrews  was  not  surprising.  Knowing  as 
little  as  they  did  of  the  divine  purpose  in  the  exodus 
and  of  their  high  vocation  as  the  church  of  the  living 
God  on  earth,  during  ages  of  dark  idolatry,  magic, 
and  superstition,  with  no  inkling  or  presentiment  of 
their  real  primacy  among  the  nations,  it  is  not  un- 
accountable that  irritation,  disgust,  and  despair  broke 
out  among  them  and  voiced  itself  in  round,  emphatic 
terms. 

The  traits  and  tendencies  of  human  nature  are 
fundamentally  the  same  in  every  age.  The  flight 
of  centuries  works  changes  in  man's  environment, 
opinions,  methods,  industries,  but  does  not  change 
him  radically,  does  not  abolish  his  selfishness,  im- 
patience, incontinence,  vindictiveness.  Hence  it  is 
true  that  the  Hebrev/  Bible  and  its  chronicles  of  the 
Jews  is,  so  to  speak,  a  proof-sheet  of  generic  man. 
Here  one  sees  human  nature,  not  of  any  particular 
time  or  type,  but  of  all  times  and  temperaments, 
working  itself  out,  following  its  bent,  doing  its  will, 
making  its  choices,  revealing  its  inw-ardness,  its  true 
essential  self,  and  coming  either  to  joy  and  reward 
or  to  grief  and  contempt,  according  to  its  prefer- 
ences.    In  other  w'ords,  what  this  old  chronicle  re- 


THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS  177 

ports  the  Jews  as  having  done  in  their  time,  most 
men  would  do  to-day  under  similar  circumstances. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  consider  two  or  three 
universal  human  traits  as  evinced  in  this  their  criti- 
cism of  Moses  and  his  campaign  into  the  desert. 
One  of  the  fixed  peculiarities  of  our  case  is  this : 
that  no  location,  no  change  in  our  life-experience,  is 
capable  of  creating  complete  and  sustained  satis- 
faction. The  Israelites  had  not  been  two  months 
out  of  Egypt  when  they  began  to  murmur  about 
their  fare.  Liberty,  which  looked  like  a  grand  thing 
and  the  main  desideratum,  whilst  they  were  making 
bricks  and  carrying  hods  in  Egypt,  had  the  enchant- 
ment taken  out  of  it  when  subjected  to  the  chill 
touchstone  of  reality  and  suffering.  If  freedom 
meant  starvation  or  even  a  monotonous  dietary,  they 
were  in  favor  of  bondage  with  plenty  to  eat.  But, 
after  all,  their  experience  simply  served  to  discover 
a  great  general  principle  and  one  worthy  of  all  accep- 
tation, that  by  a  divine  constitution  we  can  never 
procure  any  good  thing  in  this  v/orld  without  a 
concomitant  evil  which  discounts  and  qualifies  it. 
Every  position  in  life  is  necessarily  accompanied  by 
some  limitation  peculiar  to  itself.  Even  the  Hebrew 
exodus,  originated  and  superintended  of  God,  and 
one  of  the  great  moments  in  the  history  of  mankind, 
was  not  exempted  from  this  law.  It  was  not  an 
excursion  for  pleasure,  but  a  right  serious  business, 
full  of  labor  and  sorrow  and  much  misgiving,  as 


178         THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS 

they  had  occasion  to  learn  who  took  part  in  it.  Lib- 
erty from  oppression  was  indeed  a  shining  goal; 
but  it  also  meant  pain,  hunger,  fatigue,  disease,  the 
sands  and  serpents  of  the  desert,  and  all  the  perils 
and  disgusts  of  their  pilgrimage. 

And  this  is  a  parable  of  universal  experience. 
Men  often  aspire  to  conditions  which  they  conceive 
more  easy  and  eligible  than  those  they  occupy,  only 
to  find  them  when  attained  beset  by  vexations  and 
burdens  equivalent  to  those  that  dogged  these  old 
campaigning  Jews  on  their  way  to  the  land  of  prom- 
ise. The  truth  seems  to  be  that  God  can  place  us 
nowhere  in  this  world  where  we  shall  be  perfectly 
happy.  Your  circumstances  might  be  changed  a 
thousand  times,  and  each  time  apparently  for  the 
better,  without  adding  a  grain  of  solid  contentment 
to  your  spirit.  People  come  into  bondage  to  some 
inconvenience,  to  some  personal  trial  or  thorn  in  the 
flesh,  and  naturally  imagine  that  if  this  were  reduced 
or  allayed  their  peace  would  flow  like  a  river;  but 
there  is  no  sound  ground  for  this  assumption.  On 
the  contrary,  collective  experience  goes  to  show  that 
relief  at  one  point  usually  aggravates  the  symptoms 
at  another.  There  are  discounts  waiting  upon  every 
state  into  which  man  can  come.  Remove  one  evil 
and  directly  another  springs  up,  different  in  char- 
acter, but  not  on  that  account  more  tolerable.  Be 
our  skill  what  it  may,  it  is  impossible  to  winnow  out 
all  causes  of  discord,  friction,  maladjustment,  dis- 


THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS  179 

comfort,  leaving  behind  only  a  residuum  of  prosper- 
ous, joy-producing  elements.  And  the  best  account 
of  this  state  of  things  yet  discovered  by  our  reason 
is  that  life  really  is  not  designed  to  be  a  success,  as 
men  count  it.  It  is  not  intended  that  even  useful 
men  and  women  should  be  satisfied  with  their 
achievements,  much  less  that  the  comfortable,  lux- 
urious, and  selfish  should  be  satisfied  with  their  pos- 
sessions and  surroundings.  And  so  it  happens  that 
the  great,  the  generous  and  meritorious,  those  who 
have  exerted  a  salutary  influence  upon  their  time, 
who  have  imparted  a  wholesome  impulse  to  the 
world  and  have  come  to  renown,  upon  retrospect 
realize  that  their  career  looks  more  like  a  success  to 
others  than  to  themselves.  They  see  so  many  points 
where  they  could  have  used  their  material  and  op- 
portunity to  better  advantage,  they  are  keenly  con- 
scious of  so  many  blemishes  and  imperfections,  that 
the  less  said  of  their  work  the  better,  —  so  they  feel 
about  it, 

A  splendid  destiny  it  was  to  march  out  of  bondage 
and  found  a  theocratic  state  in  the  land  of  Canaan 
that  would  exercise  incalculable  influence  upon  the 
human  race ;  no  higher  vocation  enjoyed  by  any 
people  than  by  these  Hebrews  whom  God  chose  to 
be  His  witnesses  in  the  earth,  and  the  trustees  of 
imperishable  truths ;  but  meanwhile  it  was  not  an 
easy  thing.  The  vision  loomed  vast,  radiant  with 
apocalyptic  splendor,  as  seen  by  Moses  and  Aaron 


i8o         THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS 

and  the  deep,  oracular  souls  among  them;  but  the 
road  that  led  thither,  the  hunger,  the  thirst,  the 
manna,  the  carcasses  of  dead  and  abandoned  beasts 
and  men,  all  the  loathsome  and  odious  incidents  in 
their  great  adventure,  —  above  all,  the  death  of 
almost  every  man  of  them  who  came  out  of  Egypt, 
—  these  were  large  subtractions  and  calculated  to 
impair  the  glory  of  the  undertaking. 

And  so  I  call  this  old  Hebrew  experience  a  type 
of  human  experience  at  large.  No  great  and  benefi- 
cent result  ever  was  wrought  out  unmixed  with 
evil,  or  that  in  its  operation  did  not  inflict  some 
hardship  or  inconvenience.  This  is  markedly  true 
of  individuals.  If  any  one  possess  a  great  gift  or 
talent,  if  he  have  a  genius  in  a  special  direction,  there 
usually  goes  along  with  it  a  serious  qualification. 
If  it  be  a  bright,  apprehensive  intellect,  there  may 
be  a  deficiency  in  the  matter  of  judgment  or  hard, 
practical  common  sense.  People  say  he  is  a  brilliant 
man,  but  he  does  not  understand  the  art  of  getting 
on,  or  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect  in  ordinary 
affairs;  hence  he  bungles  and  spoils  whatever  he 
touches.  Or,  if  the  gift  one  has  be  wealth,  it  may 
be  that  there  is  no  health  or  spirit  to  enjoy  it;  or 
if  so,  it  may  become  the  instrument  of  demoralizing 
a  family  that  otherwise  would  have  done  well.  Or, 
again,  if  the  gift  lie  in  the  realm  of  the  affections, 
perchance  there  comes  a  break-up  of  friendship ;  the 
object  upon  which  the  heart  settles  with  fondness  is 


THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS  i8i 

removed  in  one  way  or  another,  or  turns  out  badly 
and  falsifies  expectation.  Take  any  advantage,  posi- 
tion, priority,  and  it  will  be  found  that  a  compensa- 
tion has  been  established  by  which  its  possessor  is 
practically  reduced  to  the  average  level  and  brought 
into  touch  with  the  rest  of  mankind. 

But  besides  this  fact  that  we  live  in  a  world  in 
which  there  is  an  apparent  loss  of  power,  and  fine 
results  are  ground  out  with  great  waste  and  expense, 
there  is  another  cognate  consideration  to  be  noted, 
which  is,  that  in  carrying  out  a  providential  purpose 
or  realizing  a  high  end,  men  are  not  justified  in 
always  expecting  other  things  to  match.  I  mean 
to  say  that  the  fact  that  one  is  engaged  in  a  noble 
and  useful  work,  or  is  striving  to  perfect  himself 
with  much  pain  and  struggle,  does  not  necessarily 
insure  or  carry  along  with  it  prosperity  and  natural 
advantages.  Antecedently  one  would  think  that 
God,  having  chosen  the  Hebrews  to  be  the  pioneers 
of  true  religion  and  its  conservators  in  a  dark  world, 
would  have  arranged  everything  to  correspond  with 
such  an  eminent  office,  making  the  crooked  straight 
and  the  rough  places  plain.  But,  so  far  from  this 
being  the  case,  the  record  candidly  states  that  they 
had  not  been  long  escaped  out  of  Egypt  before  they 
wished  themselves  back,  having  fallen  into  despon- 
dency and  disgust  at  the  whole  movement.  "  Were 
there  no  graves  in  Egypt?"  they  cried.  Clearly, 
their  circumstances  did  not  match  with  the  grandeur 


i82         THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS 

of  their  mission,  —  at  least  from  a  human  stand- 
point. So  worldly  success  is  no  sign  of  interior 
spiritual  qualities,  or  even  of  moral  sensitiveness. 
Many  a  saint  of  God  lives  upon  a  bare  competency, 
while  his  shrewd  and  sleek  neighbor,  unvexed  by 
conscientious  scruples,  joins  house  to  house  and  lays 
field  to  field  till  there  be  no  place.  The  laws  that 
obtain  in  the  secular  world,  and  by  conformity  to 
which  men  reap  fame,  position,  and  natural  goods, 
are  secular,  industrial,  economic  laws,  and  totally 
distinct  from  those  that  obtain  in  the  realm  of  re- 
ligion. Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  a  religious  man 
whose  life  is  overshadowed  by  the  powers  of  the 
world  to  come  may  often  appear  to  have  alighted 
on  the  wrong  planet,  so  weak  and  awkward  is  his 
hand  to  cope  with  the  combinations  of  this  shrewd 
and  practical  world.  Nor,  strange  as  it  seems,  does 
God  interpose  to  put  him  upon  an  equal  footing  with 
those  who  have  the  faculty  and  address  to  succeed. 

Divine  Providence  does  not  stoop  to  mend  the 
errors,  indiscretions,  and  defects  even  of  good  men. 
The  Bible  does  not  promise  that  the  children  of 
light  shall  never  be  worsted  in  the  battle  of  life,  or 
shall  infallibly  achieve  the  full  measure  of  pros- 
perity correlative  with  their  character,  gratifying 
and  conclusive  as  this  would  be  to  those  who  believe 
in  a  personal  God.  Men  inveigh  against  the  inequal- 
ities of  the  human  lot,  and  wonder  whether  there  be 
a  just  God,  seeing  that  the  carnal  and  mercenary 


THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS  183 

often  appear  to  be  His  prime  favorities,  judging 
from  the  distribution  of  fat  things.  But  they  fail 
to  reflect  upon  the  pecuHar  character  or  differentia 
of  this  present  scene  or  scheme. 

Worldly  success  is  not  properly  a  question  of 
religious  belief  or  unbelief,  of  spiritual  convictions 
or  conscientious  scruples ;  it  is  a  cjuestion  of  natural 
ability  to  handle  the  commodities  and  combinations 
of  the  natural  world.  Consequently  there  is  no  just 
ground  for  complaint  if  some  of  the  best  men  and 
women,  the  highest  types  of  human  character,  the 
noblest  samples  of  Christian  attainment  and  Chris- 
tian manhood,  achieve  only  a  moderate  success  or 
even  a  mortifying  failure.  This  is  no  argument 
against  God  and  religion.  It  is  only  equivalent  to 
saying  that  they  do  not  happen  to  possess  the  special 
talent  demanded  by  the  conditions,  the  sagacious  eye, 
the  rapid  decision,  the  combative  temperament,  the 
audacity  and  determination  that  fights  its  way  into 
possession.  Or  it  may  well  be  that  while  they  have 
these  they  would  not  stoop  to  the  arts  and  tricks 
and  wily  subtleties  of  many  whom  this  world  calls 
great. 

But  whatever  be  the  cause  of  difference  between 
individuals,  it  is  deducible  from  the  experience  of 
these  Hebrews  that  in  the  defence  or  promotion  of 
no  end,  howsoever  high  and  holy  and  duly  authenti- 
cated, are  men  justified  in  expecting  exemption  from 
annoyance,  dela}^,  obstruction,  and  other  undesirable 


i84         THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS 

concomitants.  Offences  must  come.  No  high  en- 
terprise, no  amelioration  of  man's  estate,  no  great 
reform,  no  moral  idea  but  has  to  do  battle  with 
hostile  circumstances  and  finds  its  way  hedged  and 
narrow. 

If  you  are  engaged  in  any  good  work  like  these 
Jews,  you  will  often  wish  you  had  never  undertaken 
it.  If  you  are  striving,  by  divine  help,  to  fashion 
a  Christian  character  and  conquer  your  besetting 
sins,  you  will  find  labor  and  sorrow,  and  often  cry 
out,  "  Why  carry  longer  this  cross  ?  why  not  give 
up  and  be  my  natural  self,  and  enjoy  and  indulge 
without  stint  or  restraint?"  No  one  need  count  upon 
steady,  unbroken  success,  or  wait  for  a  sign  from 
heaven  certifying  victory.  Whoso  looks  for  con- 
stant encouragement,  even  in  a  righteous  cause  or  in 
any  sincere  attempt  to  do  or  deserve  well,  shows 
that  he  misconceives  the  inexorable  conditions  of 
our  life  here.  The  Hebrews  of  the  Exode  had  em- 
barked upon  a  movement  which  for  sheer  greatness, 
for  significance,  for  dramatic  interest,  for  world- 
wide, age-long  influence  had  had  no  parallel,  nor  did 
have  until  the  Son  of  God  became  incorporate  in 
our  race ;  and  yet  they  had  not  been  out  upon  their 
experiment  thirty  days  before  they  were  heartily 
sick  of  it  and  wished  that  they  had  found  graves  in 
Egypt. 

We  must  not  expect  everything  in  life  to  harmon- 
ize.   Doubtless  this  world  has  underlying  it  a  forma- 


THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS  185 

tive  idea,  a  final  end,  and  will  eventually  achieve  the 
foreordained  results,  notably  upon  those  who  pa- 
tiently and  trustfully  submit  themselves  to  the  long, 
tedious  process.  Meantime,  let  no  man  or  woman 
expect  anything  miraculous,  impressive,  gratifying 
in  his  behoof;  it  may  come,  but  do  not  count  upon 
it,  do  not  insist  upon  it.  If  you  be  a  child  of  God, 
do  not  directly  conclude  that  divine  providence  is 
arranging  to  make  you  prosperous,  famous,  fre- 
quented, even  eminently  useful.  This  does  not  fol- 
low ;  quite  the  reverse  may  easily  happen.  You  may 
see  days  wherein  you  will  cry,  like  these  distracted 
Jews,  "  Would  God  I  had  died  in  Egypt !  "  Do  not 
misconceive  the  situation.  Jesus  said  to  his  twelve 
disciples,  "  In  this  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation, 
but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the  world." 

Consider  further  that  the  same  course  of  reason- 
ing applies  equally  to  large  and  public  attempts  in 
the  general  interest  of  mankind.  Just  as  the  He- 
brews found  it  no  promenade  to  start  for  Canaan 
and  found  a  theocratic  state,  so  it  is  never  easy  to 
achieve  a  great  and  durable  undertaking.  It  is  not 
easy  to  do  good  in  this  world;  one  needs  a  special 
endowment.  For  as  soon  as  he  bestirs  himself  to 
attempt  it,  lo !  he  encounters  a  torpid  mass  of  igno- 
rance, perversity,  prejudice,  laziness,  stupid  content- 
ments, individual  and  corporate,  wdth  things  as  they 
are,  with  all  of  which  he  must  temporize  or  do 
battle,  as  circumstances  indicate.     Hence  one  bent 


l86         THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS 

upon  doing  good  —  on  a  large  scale  or  a  small  — 
needs  a  rare  balance  of  virtues  and  powers,  tact, 
good  humor,  common  sense,  patience,  energy,  fer- 
tility of  resource,  a  tenacious  will,  faith  in  God,  a 
robust  optimism,  a  certain  prophetic  quality  that  sees 
the  triumph  from  afar.  A  large,  miscellaneous  outfit 
one  requires  who  would  leave  the  world  better  than 
he  found  it.  It  must  be  so,  else  there  would  be  more 
accomplished,  and  mankind  would  ameliorate  faster. 
It  is  not  easy  to  set  a  high  example,  to  leave  a  great 
bequest  to  posterity.  The  Hebrew  prophets  did  not 
find  it  easy  or  safe  to  confront  autocratic  kings,  de- 
mand the  abolition  of  Baal-worship  and  a  national 
return  to  Jehovah.  The  early  church  did  not  find 
it  easy  to  live  through  persecution  and  hand  down 
the  Christian  tradition  to  halcyon  times.  The  me- 
diaeval church  did  not  find  it  easy  to  keep  the 
sparks  of  learning,  justice,  and  humanity  from  being 
trampled  out.  The  founders  of  the  American  Com- 
monwealth did  not  find  it  easy  to  adopt  a  written 
constitution  that  should  make  out  of  a  loose  league 
an  indissoluble  union. 

It  never  has  been  easy  to  confer  a  valuable  gift 
upon  mankind  or  to  be  of  service  to  the  world. 
They  who  have  attempted  this  have  had  to  suffer 
for  it,  to  pay  a  heavy  price  for  their  honor  and 
eminence.  No  great  landmark  has  been  set  up  with- 
out toil  and  sweat  and  danger.  No  amelioration  of 
the  race  has  come  about  naturally,  gently,  sponta- 


THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS  187 

neously,  but  rather  with  sharp  pain,  and  throes,  and 
after  proplonged  gestation.  Oh,  yes,  there  have 
always  been  graves  enough  in  Egypt  to  bury  every 
generation ;  but  meanwhile,  how  would  the  world 
have  got  on?  How  would  man  have  reached  the 
great  generalizations  that  have  issued  in  new  man- 
ners, laws,  eras,  in  a  higher  morality  and  in  the 
Christian  religion?  True,  it  has  all  been  painful, 
laborious,  stern,  tragic,  unutterably  wearisome,  easier 
far  to  tarry  in  Egypt  and  die  there.  But  would  the 
race  have  ripened?  Would  man  have  developed  or 
dwindled?  Would  the  human  centuries  have  been 
filled  with  new  ideas,  inventions,  migrations,  enter- 
prises, expansions  of  all  kinds,  or  have  sunk  down 
into  a  narcotic  condition  where  the  light  is  as  dark- 
ness? Not  alone  those  wandering  Jews,  but  all 
founders,  all  pioneers,  all  witnesses  for  imperishable 
truths  have  had  to  encounter  peril  and  multiform 
evil. 

Observe  that  the  complaint  of  these  people  against 
Moses  indicated  a  lack  of  faith  in  the  power  and 
purpose  of  God.  They  could  not  take  in  the  situa- 
tion. Full  of  animal  instincts  and  hungers,  impa- 
tient and  mutinous,  it  was  hardly  possible  for  them 
to  divine  the  inner  nature  of  this  movement  or  rise 
to  the  great  occasion  with  an  intelligent  compre- 
hension. Evidently  they  did  not  understand  their 
age  and  the  increasing  purpose  of  time.  But  they 
were  not  singular  in  this.     No  generation  under- 


i88         THE    COST    OF    PROGRESS 

stands  its  time,  —  what  it  holds  in  solution,  what 
rudiments  of  change  are  fermenting  within  it,  what 
seeds  are  swelling  there,  what  transformations  are 
getting  ready  to  burst,  what  its  signs  of  promise  or 
of  peril  are.  Only  elect  souls,  here  and  there,  get 
flashes  out  of  the  dark  future,  revealing  its  shape 
and  drift;  only  the  seers,  who  have  the  power  of 
a  peculiar  eye,  suspect  what  is  coming.  But  although 
we  cannot  tell  what  surprises  God  is  preparing  out 
of  the  elements  of  the  present,  we  can  believe  in  an 
infallible  direction  of  affairs,  and  take  up  a  right  and 
reverent  attitude  toward  this  divine  fact. 

Connect  yourself  w^ith  the  revealed  purpose  of 
God  in  Jesus  Christ.  Follow  His  lead,  see  how  He 
shot  beyond  the  sons  of  time  and  showed  what  they 
may  become.  No  one  can  expound  this  imbroglio 
called  life,  or  tread  cheerfully  amid  its  coil  of  con- 
tradictions, without  faith  in  God ;  otherwise  he  will 
be  dazed  by  its  mystery,  confused  by  its  discord,  and 
maddened  by  its  inequalities.  Religious  faith  gives 
poise,  serenity,  courage,  and  joy.  Prayer  pours 
strength  into  the  soul  and  helps  it  to  move  on  into 
the  darkness.  Nothing  can  deeply  disturb  or  alarm 
him  whose  strength  and  refuge  is  God. 


THE    SUN   AND    THE    RAIN 

For  he  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and 
sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust.  —  MATTHEW 
V.  45. 

VERY  probably  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is 
intended  primarily  as  the  constitution  of  a 
new  and  future  kingdom  of  humanity,  and 
is  designed  for  the  present  only  in  so  far  as  the  con- 
ditions of  the  case  allow.  The  spirit,  the  general 
temper,  inculcated,  is  unquestionably  of  binding 
force  now  and  always ;  more  and  more  men  should 
try  to  embody  it  in  action,  but  the  new  moral  law 
will  not  be  fully  set  up  before  that  era  when  human 
nature  shall  be  lifted  to  a  higher  plane  and  be  made 
accordant  with  the  will  of  God  and  sympathetic  with 
essential  goodness.  Among  its  other  precepts  is  this 
of  the  text :  Love  your  enemies,  do  good  to  them 
that  hate  you,  pray  for  such  as  use  you  ill.  This  is 
not  at  all  impracticable  even  in  the  present  low  and 
undeveloped  state  of  our  nature ;  it  has  been  actually 
accomplished  by  many  of  the  higher  specimens  of 
our  race,  although  confessedly  not  a  natural  and 
spontaneous  instinct.  For  the  average  man  is  ever 
mindful  of  injuries,  and  harbors  spites  and  grudges 
and  desires  to  get  even  with  his  adversary.     Even 


I90        THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN 

when  he  does  not  take  active  measures  to  avenge 
or  indemnify  himself,  he  is  hkely  to  remember  a 
wrong  or  injustice,  and  will  be  a  prodigy  of  his 
kind  if  he  does  not  make  the  recollection  count  for 
something  against  him  who  has  done  the  injury,  if 
occasion  arise.  So  that  while  Christ's  command  to 
love  one's  enemy  is  perfectly  feasible,  it  is  still  cjuite 
an  uncommon  sentiment. 

Probably,  then,  in  this  Sermon  on  the  Mount  our 
Lord  speaks  particularly  as  the  prophet  of  a  coming 
day,  and  announces  the  blessed  laws  of  the  kingdom 
of  the  heavens.  Jesus  knew  full  well  that  man,  in 
his  present  disabled  condition,  cannot  keep  the  moral 
law;  none  the  less  it  was  proper  that  the  law 
should  be  promulged.  Man  must  have  rules  and 
ideals;  he  needs  to  be  told  what  he  does  not  know, 
and  exhorted  to  do  even  what  he  is  unable  to  do. 
Jesus  knew  that  it  is  not  in  sinful  human  nature  to 
return  good  for  evil;  to  give  a  cloak  to  one  who 
sues  for  a  coat;  to  be  perfect  as  God  is  perfect. 
His  very  errand  to  the  world  was  predicated  upon 
this  melancholy  fact,  that  man  as  he  now  is  cannot 
climb  the  arduous  heights  of  spiritual  excellence. 
But  what  of  that?  Shall  men  not  know  that  there 
is  a  goodness  transcending  them?  —  a  gentleness, 
humility,  self-control,  self-surrender,  a  symmetry  of 
character,  beyond  their  present  realization?  Very 
properly  then  did  the  Christian  Founder  sketch  the 
outline  of  a  nobler  manhood,  into  which,  by  mighty 


THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN         191 

struggle  and  the  potent  leverage  of  the  cross,  He 
would  eventually  lift  the  race.  Here,  in  this  famous 
discourse.  He  gives  a  sample  of  what  man  may  be- 
come when  the  will  of  God  is  perfected  in  him. 

This  sermon,  then,  has  two  sides :  ostensibly  it  is 
an  exhortation  to  do  justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk 
humbly  before  God;  and  in  a  recondite,  interior 
sense,  it  is  the  prediction  of  a  coming  constitution 
of  things,  a  new  social  order,  a  divine  kingdom. 
Here  we  are  living  in  the  flesh,  assailed  by  tempta- 
tions, and  the  Son  of  God,  as  the  end  aimed  at  by  his 
merciful  interference,  predicts  and  prepares  for  a 
higher  development,  better  manners  and  customs, 
social  and  moral  changes  of  incalculable  significance 
which  are  one  day  to  overtake  the  race.  I  under- 
stand him  to  speak  here  in  his  cjuality  as  a  prophet, 
and  to  state  the  ultimate  outcome  of  his  errand  to 
the  world.  He  declares  virtually  that  man  is  des- 
tined to  reach  such  a  pitch  of  excellence,  notwith- 
standing present  untoward  appearances,  that  if  it 
were  possible  for  him  to  have  an  open,  undisguised 
enemy,  he  would  love  him,  he  would  do  him  good; 
instead  of  intensifying  the  feud  he  would  seek  to 
heal  it.  Jesus  holds  aloft  an  ideal  before  the  race 
which  still  shines  afar,  which  has  not  been  reduced 
to  practical  fact  upon  a  large  scale. 

The  force  of  this  precept  is  that  the  enmity  of 
one  toward  another  should  not  take  away  and  oblit- 
erate the  sense  of  a  common  nature;    we  ought  to 


192        THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN 

respect  humanity  even  in  a  debased  and  unworthy 
specimen  of  it,  and  try  to  overcome  evil  with  good. 
We  should  try  to  exercise  the  love  of  benevolence 
even  toward  a  personal  enemy,  in  place  of  giving 
vent  to  private  animosity  and  the  gratification  of  the 
retaliatory  spirit.  Now,  of  course,  there  are,  as 
every  one  has  occasion  to  know,  instances  in  which 
justice,  righteousness,  and  the  interests  of  society 
would  suffer  by  the  silent,  patient  endurance  of 
wrong ;  but  even  then  we  ought  to  see  to  it  that  our 
zeal  is  a  righteous  and  pure  zeal,  and  has  respect  to 
the  principle  endangered,  and  is  not  the  malignant 
ebullition  of  hate.  Condemn  what  deserves  con- 
demnation, rebuke  what  deserves  rebuke,  antagon- 
ize what  ought  to  be  confronted  and  cast  out;  but 
while  making  these  moral  judgments  do  not  allow 
them  to  go  so  far  as  to  take  away  respect  and  con- 
sideration for  humanity  itself.  On  the  contrary, 
love  your  enemies,  be  ready  to  show  that  you  can  rise 
above  their  opposition,  meanness,  malignity,  and 
that  what  you  dislike  in  them  and  find  intolerable  is 
the  perversion  of  their  better  nature.  I  am  aware 
it  is  not  ahvays  easy  to  draw  this  fine  distinction 
between  the  action  and  the  actor.  If  one  considers 
himself  to  have  been  invaded,  defrauded,  slandered 
by  another,  it  is  not  easy  to  discriminate  and  make 
nice  definitions;  the  best  people  in  the  world  find  a 
difficulty  here.  Nevertheless,  it  remains  true  that 
what  you  ought  to  hate  is  not  the  man,  but  the  evil  he 


THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN         193 

has  wrought.  The  wrong  itself,  whatever  it  be,  is 
worthy  of  all  reprobation ;  but  the  point  at  which 
the  Christian  law  calls  a  halt  is  our  common  human- 
ity. A  malicious,  vengeful  spirit  directed  against 
the  individual  sinner,  —  this  is  forbidden.  And 
Jesus  expands  His  view  of  human  duty  in  this  con- 
nection by  calling  attention  to  the  sublime  generosity 
of  God  in  His  dealings  with  mankind,  for  He  causes 
the  sun  to  rise  and  the  rain  to  fall  upon  all  indiffer- 
ently, saints  and  sinners  alike.  The  argument  seems 
to  be  that  there  is  a  state  of  feeling  or  attitude  of 
mind  which  we  should  cultivate  toward  each  other, 
apart  from  questions  of  belief,  of  disposition,  or  of 
conduct.  And  this  was  a  new  conception.  It 
dawned  upon  the  world  at  a  time  when  the  nations 
growled  and  flashed  upon  each  other,  and  when  the 
sense  of  a  community  of  nature  and  interest  was 
very  weak.  Indeed,  it  is  always  more  or  less  diffi- 
cult to  look  upon  man,  in  his  simple  humanity,  with- 
out importing  one's  prejudices  and  animosities  into 
the  case.  Artificial  distinctions  and  barriers  sepa- 
rate men ;  religious  and  political  opinions  separate 
them.  Success  and  prosperity  often  breed  envyings 
and  heartburnings. 

Our  vision  is  colored  by  antipathies  and  dis- 
torted by  prejudice;  all  this  is  notorious.  And  in 
contrast  with  it,  Jesus  calls  attention  to  the  divine 
administration  over  mankind,  notwithstanding  their 
ingratitude,  unbelief,  and  evil  dispositions.     So  far 

13 


194         THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN 

as  regards  sun  and  rain,  all,  He  says,  fare  alike; 
the  Father  of  the  human  family  makes  no  difference 
between  His  children  on  that  score;  the  food  and 
fuel,  the  materials  for  subsistence,  are  furnished 
indiscriminately.  Universal  man  has  free  access 
to  them.  Races  and  nations  make  different  use  of 
these  common  benefits.  Some  have  more  skill,  in- 
ventiveness, originality  than  others,  and  make  more 
out  of  the  raw  material.  There  are  progressive, 
civilized  peoples,  and  barbarous,  stationary  ones. 
As  in  individuals,  so  in  races,  the  genius  or  tempera- 
ment differs,  and  hence  civilizations  are  unlike, 
civilization  being  only  a  name  for  the  use  which 
men  make  out  of  their  natural  supplies  and  advan- 
tages. But  so  far  as  the  means  and  materials  go, 
nature  is  good  and  generous.  Men  of  every  skin 
and  under  every  sky  find  wliat  answers  their  oc- 
casion and  pleases  their  taste.  Their  creeds  and 
character,  their  customs  and  superstitions,  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  their  support  and  maintenance  as 
sentient  beings.  If  one  sows  grain,  he  reaps  a  har- 
vest ;  if  he  casts  a  net  into  the  sea,  he  captures  fish ; 
if  he  digs  in  the  earth,  he  may  find  hidden  treasure; 
if  he  hews  and  squares  timber,  he  can  build  a  tight, 
warm  house.  God  has  made  the  earth  for  man's 
dwelling-place.  Nature  is  considerate  and  kind ; 
she  asks  no  inconvenient  questions ;  she  responds 
freely  to  the  practical  and  energetic,  and  to  those 
who  interrogate  her  in  the  right  manner.     Indeed 


THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN         195 

this  is  such  a  palpable  fact  that  to  many  it  seems  to 
be  an  argument  of  considerable  force  against  a 
moral  government  of  the  world.  They  would  be 
glad  if  nature  would  discriminate  more  decisively 
than  is  the  case.  I  look  abroad  and  observe  how 
good  and  gracious  and  motherly  great  nature  is; 
behold  the  corn  waving  in  the  sunshine,  and  the 
orchard  laden  and  bending  under  a  weight  of  fruit, 
and  the  water  power  of  the  globe  turning  the  mill 
wheels  and  helping  man  with  his  work.  But  then, 
what  is  the  same  sun  doing  yonder?  Why,  he  is 
ripening  opium,  or  grain  that  is  to  go  into  alcohol, 
which,  used  in  excess,  will  cause  incalculable  mis- 
chief and  misery.  And  so  I  see  that  the  sun  is  no 
respecter  of  persons ;  he  stands  flaming  in  the  firma- 
ment, radiating  each  hour  from  each  square  foot  of 
his  surface  an  intensity  and  volume  of  heat  sufficient 
to  illuminate  planets  millions  of  miles  away.  So  that 
the  fact  of  his  shining  upon  the  earth  does  not  carry 
any  distinct  moral  implication;  he  is  equal  to  the 
lighting  and  heating  of  any  number  of  globes.  Or 
I  look  upon  the  ocean,  and  I  exclaim.  How  good  and 
kind  God  is!  Think  of  our  merchant-marine,  our 
trade,  the  wealth  that  is  washed  upon  every  shore 
by  the  restless,  tossing  sea  —  the  sea !  the  great  civ- 
ilizer  of  nations.  True  enough.  But  then  read  of 
the  hurricane  that  has  dismantled  and  wrecked  ships 
freighted  with  rich  cargoes ;  read  about  the  colli- 
sions with  iceberg  and  the  disasters  by  fog  and  storm, 


196         THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN 

and  at  once  you  perceive  that  the  sea,  also,  is  no 
respecter  of  persons,  makes  no  distinctions,  swallows 
up  rich  and  poor,  good  and  bad,  and  is  not  charged 
with  any  judicial  function  at  all.  And  so,  wherever 
I  look  I  perceive  that  nature  and  her  processes  are 
not  distinctly  moral,  do  not  discriminate  nicely  on 
the  basis  of  personal  character  and  worthiness.  It 
has  ends  of  its  own;  it  proves  certain  theorems  in 
chemistry,  in  dynamics,  in  astronomy,  in  geology; 
it  discovers  those  laws  that  have  presided  over  the 
development  of  our  globe  out  of  gaseous  and  fluid 
states  into  a  condensed,  cooled  condition  fit  for  the 
foot  of  man.  The  sun  and  the  fattening  rain  teach 
that  much,  at  any  rate.  These  mighty  artificers, 
fire  and  water,  have  been  at  work  upon  the  seething, 
simmering,  vaporous  earth,  no  one  knows  how  long, 
blistering  and  cooling  it  by  turns,  licking  it  into 
shape,  crusting  it  over  and  rendering  it  fit  for  or- 
ganized life.  Nor  have  they  changed  their  role  and 
become  prophets  and  moral  teachers  since  the  advent 
of  man.  No,  the  sun  and  the  rain,  the  fire  and  the 
water,  have  no  more  to  do  with  moral  character  and 
spiritual  excellence  now  than  when  they  ripened  the 
fossil  and  buried  forests  of  the  coal  age  and  laid  up 
the  fuel  which  man  now  uses  for  his  furnaces  and 
engines.  They  concern  his  material  welfare;  they 
show  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  God  in  providing 
for  that.  The  sun  and  the  rain,  all  the  fructifying, 
fertilizing  forces,  and  arrangements  of  nature,  have 


THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN         197 

been  ordained  and  established  to  feed  and  support 
sentient  life.  Hence  it  follows,  that  there  can  be  no 
careful,  subtle  distinctions  made  by  natural  elements 
and  agents,  based  upon  character,  disposition,  and 
moral  quality. 

And  this,  doubtless,  is  the  deeper  interpretation 
of  Christ's  language  in  the  text.  Taking  it  superfi- 
cially, we  might  conclude  that  He  teaches  that  God 
is  morally  indifferent,  —  the  sun  and  the  rain  work 
alike  for  the  evil  and  the  good;  it  is  all  the  same  to 
God  whether  man  is  unjust,  unthankful,  or  their 
opposites,  that  He  does  not  concern  Himself  about 
the  human  will,  disposition,  and  affections,  or  about 
man's  attitude  toward  Himself.  But  this  is  not 
at  all  the  teaching  of  Christ;  the  idea  is,  that 
notwithstanding  the  disobedience  of  man,  it  is 
not  the  business  of  the  sun  and  the  rain  to  take 
account  of  it,  to  judge  it,  to  exact  a  penalty,  to  in- 
terfere in  the  way  of  making  moral  deliverances. 
God  nourishes  all  alike  from  the  capacious,  teem- 
ing bosom  of  the  earth;  but  this  fact  does  not 
commit  Him,  does  not  imply  that  He  regards  all 
with  equal  favor  or  will  treat  all  alike  in  the  long 
account.  For  we  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  there  are 
two  kingdoms  or  realms,  —  the  natural  and  the 
moral.  There  is  a  natural  law  and  there  is  a  spir- 
itual law ;  and  the  one  is  not  charged  to  look  after 
the  other.  It  would  be  an  error  to  confound  the 
two  or  to  suppose  that  natural  penalties  inevitably 


iqS      the  sun  and  the  rain 

descend  upon  moral  transgression.  This  world 
is  not  a  state  of  retribution;  there  is  much  that 
goes  unwhipped  of  justice;  it  is  a  mixed  state  of 
pleasure  and  pain,  of  success  and  failure;  it  is  an 
uncertain  twilight  world.  True,  we  pull  down  in- 
conveniences and  sorrows  upon  our  own  heads.  But 
characteristically,  this  is  not  the  era  of  rewards  and 
punishments;  it  is  the  era  of  trial,  probation,  and 
reparation:  The  fact  that  a  person  is  actually  suf- 
fering under  an  evil  disease  or  an  evil  infliction  or  an 
untoward  accident  is  not  of  itself  conclusive  that  it 
is  penal.  And,  conversely,  the  fact  that  one  is  fat 
and  flourishing,  plethoric  and  prosperous,  does  not 
irrefutably  prove  that  he  is  a  favorite  son  of  heaven. 
It  is  impossible  to  judge  from  outward  indications 
at  present.  We  cannot  build  a  safe  bridge  between 
the  natural  and  moral  kingdoms  and  pass  freely 
from  the  one  to  the  other.  This  material  world  in 
which  we  are  planted  has  its  own  laws  and  modes  of 
procedure.  If  I  thrust  my  hand  between  cause  and 
effect,  I  shall  receive  the  unfailing  consequence, 
whether  pleasurable  or  painful.  Nature  is  blind 
and  impartial  and  has  no  favorites.  The  Galileans 
whom  Pilate  slew  were  not,  according  to  Christ, 
atrocious  offenders;  the  man  born  blind  was  not  a 
scarlet  sinner;  the  eighteen  on  whom  the  tower  of 
Siloam  fell  were  no  more  guilty  in  the  sight  of  God 
than  many  in  Jerusalem  on  that  very  day.  It  is 
common  for  people  to  read  a  providential  meaning 


THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN         199 

into  unusual  happenings.  And  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  in  the  mind  and  purpose  of  the  Supreme 
Disposer  they  may  not  have  such  a  quahty  and  char- 
acter ;  only  this,  —  it  is  unsafe  for  ignorant  crea- 
tures like  ourselves  to  generalize  and  conclude 
confidently  upon  such  premises. 

Things  happen  now  and  then  that  unavoidably 
raise  in  many  minds  the  religious  question,  What 
are  we  to  say  concerning  them  ?  Well,  we  can  think 
what  we  choose,  that  is  opinion ;  but  it  does  not 
belong  to  us  to  define  dogmatically  what  is  distinctly 
retributive  and  what  is  not  owing  to  the  ambiguity 
and  doubtfulness  of  nature's  oracle.  God  knows 
what  He  means  by  permitting  the  event,  and  we, 
too,  may  shrewdly  suspect,  especially  where  there  is 
an  audacious  trampling  upon  great  moral  distinc- 
tions and  decencies;  nevertheless  it  is  a  delicate 
matter  to  make  just  discriminations  in  this  world; 
because  this  is  not  the  day  of  judgment,  this  is 
not  the  time  to  separate  the  chaff  from  the  wheat. 
Our  world  moves  slowly  on  toward  some  tremen- 
dous crisis ;  a  throne  of  unerring  decision  is  yet  to  be 
set.  Meanwhile  the  terrestrial  system  grinds  out  its 
own  results;  the  godly  man  suffers  by  reason  of 
imprudence,  accident,  or  weak  judgment,  as  liter- 
ally and  severely  as  the  base  person;  the  very  best 
do  not  escape  the  relentless  operation  of  natural 
sequence.  Pain,  misfortune,  sorrow  come  alike  to 
the  good  and  to  the  evil.     The   lightning  smites 


200         THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN 

the  temples  of  God  as  well  as  those  of  Mammon. 
Disaster  overtakes  worthy  causes  as  well  as  bad 
ones.  So  true  is  this  that  religious  faith  is  often 
staggered  by  the  permissions  of  Providence,  and 
by  the  defeats  and  delays  that  wait  upon  great 
truths  and  enterprises.  Even  the  righteous  lose 
heart  because  they  forget  that  this  is  not  the  time 
for  settlements  and  finalities,  but  that  it  is  rather  a 
world  getting  into  shape  with  infinite  pain  and  by 
slow  stages.  Day  and  night,  summer  and  winter, 
seed-time  and  harvest,  observe  their  periodicities 
and  proclaim  a  gospel  of  order,  of  adaptation,  of 
wisdom,  of  power,  of  benevolence;  but  they  are 
dumb  oracles  in  regard  to  the  future  history  of  the 
human  soul  and  the  moral  government  of  God. 
Men  are  free  to  explain  all  natural  events  and  all 
political  and  historical  developments  upon  purely 
natural  principles.  The  earthquake  that  shoots  its 
tremors  along  the  ground  can  be  expounded  without 
any  reference  to  Christ's  prophecy  that  earthquake 
and  war  and  distress  of  nations  shall  be  standing 
and  recurring  signs  until  the  close  of  this  dispensa- 
tion. Similarly  of  any  revolution  in  history,  it  can 
usually  be  accounted  for  by  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
the  political  environment,  the  necessities  of  the  time, 
the  rise  of  some  meteoric  genius  or  great  man  who 
rearranged  the  map. 

It  is  possible  to  account  for  anything  that  happens 
in  the  world  without  bringing  in  God  or  any  Chris- 


THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN        201 

tian  doctrine.  Nature  has  no  audible  voice,  no  ar- 
ticulating tongue,  no  unequivocal  language.  The 
lonely  hills,  the  desolate  sea,  the  primeval  forest, 
where  nothing  is  heard  save  the  whistle  of  a  bird, 
the  drop  of  a  nut,  the  chirp  of  an  insect,  the  sigh- 
ing of  the  wind ;  the  spring,  too,  with  its  lingering 
suns,  and  autumn  with  its  prodigal  bounty,  the 
blue  or  stormy  firmament  that  sweeps  grandly  over- 
head ;  the  night  with  its  solemn  aspects ;  none  of 
them  have  much  to  say  about  duty,  destiny,  a  life 
to  come,  personal  accountability,  moral  perfection, 
God,  holiness,  sin,  pardon.  The  silence  of  nature 
is  profound,  unbroken,  awful,  touching  those  high 
matters  which  man  chiefly  wants  to  know.  She 
plays  another  part.  The  sun  rises  to  light  bad  men 
to  their  iniquity,  and  shines  broad  and  bright  upon 
all  kinds  of  villany.  Under  the  open  heaven  gigan- 
tic swindles,  maddening  oppressions,  corrupt  politics, 
iniquitous  bargains,  greedy  combinations  of  unprin- 
cipled men,  —  wrongs  bold  and  bad  enough,  one 
would  think,  to  burst  the  bands  of  society,  —  are 
transacted  and  triumph,  and  still  the  heavens  smile 
and  the  sun  shines  on.  This  is  part  of  the  mystery 
under  which  we  live.  We  sometimes  wish  it  were 
otherwise.  There  is  a  righteous  instinct  in  men  which 
makes  them  wish  that  now  and  then  God  would  turn 
nature  into  a  scaffold  or  pillory  and  arrange  a 
providential  drama  through  which  His  indignation 
might  get  tongue  and  speak  in  rolling  thunders  and 


202        THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN 

in   emphatic   remonstrance.      But   this   is   not   His 
poHcy. 

Meanwhile  there  is  a  coming  age.  That  man 
is  surely  unwise  and  unsafe  who  builds  upon  the 
adamantine  stability  of  the  extant  order  of  things, 
a  presumption  against  revealed  religion.  For,  Jesus 
says,  "  He  that  rejecteth  me,  and  receiveth  not  my 
words,  hath  one  that  judgeth  him :  the  word  that 
I  have  spoken,  the  same  shall  judge  him  in  the  last 
day."  What  does  that  mean?  It  means  that  there 
is  an  era  of  judgment  fixed  and  approaching.  This 
present  is  only  the  age  of  the  sun  and  the  rain; 
it  is  the  early  dawn,  the  genesis.  Hence  it  follows 
that  any  one  wdio  reasons  thus,  —  God  has  been 
very  kind  to  me;  I  have  had  a  sunny,  prosperous 
life;  judging  from  the  past  I  have  nothing  to  fear 
in  the  future,  —  that  man  may  be  right,  but  his 
argument  is  shallow  and  inadequate.  Men  are  not 
in  a  position  to  say  that  there  is  no  soul-ruin,  no 
w^orld  of  retribution,  simply  because  they  happen 
to  be  comfortable  and  contented  here  and  now.  Oh, 
yes,  the  soil  is  bountiful,  the  sun  warm  and  fructi- 
f3dng,  the  rains  timely  and  abundant,  the  cattle 
sleek,  and  the  corn  and  wine  plentiful,  and  yet  the 
benignant  aspects  and  abundant  commodities  of  life 
are  not  the  wdiole  case.  The  Christian  religion  dis- 
tinctly declares  that  there  are  sunken  rocks  in  the 
moral  universe,  and  that  you  and  I  may  possibly 
founder  and  go  down.     "  God  so  loved  the  world 


THE    SUN    AND    THE    RAIN         203 

that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
beheveth  in  him  should  not  perish."  So  the  Chris- 
tian gospel  breaks  the  long  silence  of  nature.  It 
speaks  in  a  different  dialect  from  the  sun  and  the 
rain ;  it  declares  what  natural  law  does  not  know. 
Nature  can  feed  us,  can  rock  us  to  sleep,  can  supply 
us  with  tools,  can  teach  us  what  to  do  and  what  to 
avoid;  but  it  cannot  save  us,  cannot  bring  God 
near  to  our  emotional  part,  cannot  address  our  hopes 
and  fears,  cannot  unbar  a  kingdom  of  light  and  say, 
*'  Be  of  good  cheer,"  cannot  open  a  way  for  man 
into  the  heavens.  The  sun  and  the  rain  are  not 
enough,  but  "  the  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salva- 
tion hath  appeared  to  all  men.  Teaching  us,  that 
denying  ungodliness,  and  worldly  lusts,  we  should 
live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in  this  present 
world." 


THE    PASSING   OF   AARON 

And  Moses  stripped  Aaron  of  his  garments,  and  put  them 
upon  Eleazar  his  son  ;  and  Aaron  died  there  in  the  top  of 
the  mount :  and  Moses  and  Eleazar  came  down  from  the 
mount.  —  Numbers  xx,  28. 

SEVERE  simplicity  characterizes  the  authors 
of  the  Bible ;  they  rarely  add  any  observations 
of  their  own,  and  narrate  the  most  pathetic 
and  weighty  events  without  stating-  their  private 
impressions.  Their  conciseness  often  disappoints 
our  natural  curiosity.  The  historical  facts  are  re- 
cited without  high  rhetorical  finish,  and  usually 
without  betraying  the  bias  of  the  writer.  The  ac- 
count of  the  death  of  Aaron  is  a  case  in  point.  It 
was  a  scene  of  impressive  solemnity,  5^et  it  is  given 
in  a  cool,  unimpassioned  manner,  and  shows  no 
effort  to  rouse  feeling  or  make  a  dramatic  exhibi- 
tion. This  is  the  more  singular  if,  as  has  been  gen- 
erally supposed,  Moses  was  the  author  of  the 
narrative,  for  these  two  men  were  brothers,  and 
were  chiefly  concerned  in  the  great  critical  move- 
ment of  the  Hebrew  exodus;  they  were  sharers 
in  the  same  experience,  and  a  crowd  of  memories 
common  to  both  must  have  thronged  through  their 
minds  as  they  ascended  the  mountain  upon  this  pain- 
ful errand.     Yet  observe  the  unpretending  brevity 


THE    PASSING    OF    AARON         205 

with  which  the  amazing  scene  is  portrayed ;  there 
is  no  flush  of  imagery  or  ostentation  of  ornament. 
Aaron  was  going  up  to  die ;  he  had  a  clear  prevision 
of  the  event ;  it  was  the  close  of  his  long  service ;  his 
work  was  at  length  done.  The  congenialities  and 
endearments  and  fraternal  intercourse  that  had 
passed  between  himself  and  Moses  were  now  draw- 
ing to  an  end,  and  his  ripe  experience  and  judgment 
were  about  to  be  taken  from  the  camp  of  Israel.  He 
was  not  as  great  a  man  as  Moses,  but  he  was  great 
enough  to  be  missed ;  and  yet  in  the  most  stoical, 
phlegmatic  vein,  without  any  appeal  to  human  sym- 
pathy, the  simple  and  sad  story  of  his  demise  is  told. 
A  literary  artist,  a  novelist,  a  master  of  sentences, 
who  has  the  power  to  stir  feeling,  who  can  run  his 
hand  up  and  down  the  emotional  chords  of  our 
nature,  would  hardly  let  such  an  opportunity  slip 
and  rest  satisfied  with  a  prosaic  rendering  of  the 
incident.  He  would  give  rein  to  imagination ;  he 
would  be  profuse  and  elaborate,  and  pile  up  clouds 
of  awful  gloom,  or  paint  a  twilight  of  pensive  sad- 
ness or  a  storm  of  heart-breaking  sorrow.  Never- 
theless, it  may  w^ell  be  doubted  whether  he  could 
create  such  a  profound  impression  as  that  produced 
by  the  simplicity  of  the  old  Hebrew  chronicle.  Lis- 
ten to  it :  "  And  Moses  stripped  Aaron  of  his  gar- 
ments, and  put  them  upon  Eleazar  his  son ;  and 
Aaron  died  there  in  the  top  of  the  mount :  and  Moses 
and  Eleazar  came  down  from  the  mount." 


2o6         THE    PASSING    OF   AARON 

There  are  some  facts  and  truths  in  this  world 
which  would  be  spoiled  by  amplification;  they  are 
luminous  and  self-evident,  carry  their  own  creden- 
tials, commend  themselves;  state  them,  and  it  is  all 
one  need  do;  in  their  native  simplicity  they  are  as 
cogent  and  powerful  as  they  can  be  made  to  appear 
by  human  ingenuity.  In  this  respect  they  resemble 
the  bold  features  of  nature,  the  mountains,  the  ocean, 
the  rock-bound  coasts,  the  blue  bays  and  headlands 
—  look  at  them,  and  this  is  enough.  So  it  is  with 
certain  epochs  in  history,  certain  great  heroic  ac- 
tions :  they  have  a  voice  and  dialect  of  their  own, 
and  speak  to  every  heart,  and  would  be  belittled  and 
diluted  by  argument  and  explanation.  Moreover, 
this  is  the  notable  policy  of  the  Bible.  It  presents 
its  actors  and  events  and  propositions  wrapped  in 
their  own  native  majesty  and  genuine  effectiveness, 
and  seems  to  say,  "  See  for  yourselves."  Scattered 
up  and  down  the  Bible  you  will  find  statements  and 
historical  scenes  so  true,  so  pertinent  and  universal 
in  their  character,  that  any  exposition  would  leave 
them  feebler  than  it  found  them.  Consider  such 
afBrmations  as  these :  "  God  is  a  spirit,"  "  God  is 
love,"  "  Jesus  said,  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the 
life,"  "  This  mortal  must  put  on  immortality." 
Who  is  fit  to  expound  such  horizons?  They  are 
too  vast  and  misty  and  magnificent  for  our  clumsy 
handling. 

Similarly,   read   this   death-scene   of  Aaron,   the 


THE    PASSING    OF   AARON         207 

first  Jewish  high  priest,  and  one  sees  that  had  the 
chronicler  gone  into  particulars,  had  he  laid  on 
lurid  colors,  or  curtained  the  occasion  with  pro- 
digious pomp,  or  shot  it  through  with  a  tragical 
glare,  or  indulged  in  melancholy,  harrowing  reflec- 
tions, the  power  of  the  whole  scene  would  have  been 
broken;  wisely  indeed  did  he  leave  it  there  in  its 
own  stern  sublimity,  standing  in  the  depths  of 
silence  and  solitude. 

And  the  lessons  for  us  in  the  death  of  Aaron? 
The  record  attributes  it  to  the  error  of  Moses  in 
smiting  the  rock  at  Meribah  for  the  thirsty  Israel- 
ites, instead  of  simply  speaking,  as  the  order  ran. 
True,  Aaron  was  only  accessory  to  that  transaction, 
and  not  the  chief  actor.  It  was  Moses  who  evinced 
some  quite  natural  ill  temper  at  the  peevish  dis- 
content of  the  people,  but  Aaron  was  present  and 
doubtless  sympathized  with  his  brother's  impatience 
and  disgust  over  the  situation ;  at  any  rate,  this  is 
the  reason  assigned  for  his  exclusion  from  Canaan, 
Everywhere  this  Hebrew  Testament  insists  upon 
the  idea  of  a  presiding  God,  and  now  and  then 
the  curtain  is  lifted  and  His  voice  is  heard;  He 
thunders  out  of  heaven  upon  the  chosen  people,  He 
discloses  Himself  in  some  act  or  occurrence  of  a 
miraculous  kind.  He  becomes  the  author  of  a  sud- 
den calamity  or  of  a  universal  blessing.  Here  in 
this  narrative  touching  Aaron,  God  is  brought  ac- 
tively and  audibly  upon  the  scene;    He  says  unto 


2o8         THE    PASSING    OF   AARON 

Moses,  "  Aaron  shall  be  gathered  unto  his  people, 
he  shall  not  enter  the  land  which  I  have  given  unto 
Israel." 

It  is  not  altogether  easy  for  our  contemporary 
age  to  appreciate  this  anthropomorphic  familiarity 
with  the  supernatural.  Our  scientific  time  speaks  of 
God  as  the  great  Unknown,  the  stream  of  tendency, 
a  power  that  makes  for  righteousness,  the  totality 
of  forces  and  things,  the  heart  that  throbs  through 
nature.  The  personal  element  does  not  enter  so 
decisively  into  the  current  conception  of  God  as  it 
did  with  the  old  Hebrews.  Men  find  it  difficult  to 
rise  higher  than  secondary  causes,  having  become 
familiar  with  the  reign  of  law  and  its  uniform  se- 
quences. This  is  a  distinct  loss  to  the  devotional 
spirit;  faith  declines,  and  human  life  gets  material- 
ized, when  a  personal  Providence  is  shut  out  of  the 
world.  The  great  and  necessary  service  rendered 
by  the  Bible  is,  that  it  teaches  us  to  think  of  God 
as  one  who  takes  a  practical  interest  and  partici- 
pates in  the  fortunes  of  the  earth  and  man,  and  who 
is  slowly  embodying  His  own  idea  under  the  forms 
of  time  and  in  the  processes  of  human  history. 

Again,  the  narrative  of  the  death  of  Aaron  is 
suggestive  upon  this  point,  so  notoriously  true,  that 
there  is  a  unity  or  community  of  interests  and  suffer- 
ing among  men,  so  that  often  they  stand  or  fall 
together.  Pluman  beings  are  like  tourists  climbing 
the  Alps,  roped  one  to  the  other.     If  one  falls,  he 


THE    PASSING    OF    AARON  209 

imperils  others;  if  one  slips  and  goes  down  the 
abyss,  he  may  drag  the  rest  with  him.  So  in  hfe 
at  large;  whatever  we  may  think  of  the  equities 
of  the  case,  it  is  unquestionably  true  that,  owing 
to  proximity,  contact,  kinship,  we  bear  one  another's 
burdens  and  inherit  either  advantage  or  trouble.  As 
the  world  is  arranged,  the  innocent  often  suffer  with 
the  guilty,  and  the  mere  accident  of  relationship 
sometimes  leads  to  inconvenient  consequences.  Con- 
versely, a  person  is  often  advantaged  by  what  looks 
like  blind  luck  or  the  force  of  favoring  circumstances 
without  active  co-operation  on  his  part,  or  any  spe- 
cial virtue  or  merit  in  him.  This  is  among  the 
standing  paradoxes,  -^  no  new  thing,  but  old  as 
human  society.  The  Hebrews  murmured  at  Meri- 
bah,  and  Aaron  was  numbered  among  them  and  lost 
the  promised  land ;  it  is  a  parable.  The  world  is  a 
scene  of  rough  justice;  accounts  are  not  accurately 
balanced  yet  awhile.  Only  general  principles  and 
broad  distinctions  are  ascertained  and  announced 
here.  Natural  law  does  not  individualize,  is  cruel 
and  undiscriminating.  If  you  touch  fire  you  will 
be  burned,  if  you  handle  pitch  you  will  be  tarred,  if 
you  stumble  over  the  precipice  you  will  fall  and  per- 
ish ;  not  that  you  deserve  these  consequences  more 
than  another,  —  it  may  have  been  by  inadvertence 
and  accident,  it  may  even  have  been  a  bit  of  heroism 
or  noble  self-sacrifice  that  has  involved  you  in  trouble ; 
but  notwithstanding  the  purity  of  motive  or  ethical 

14 


2IO         THE    PASSING    OF   AARON 

rectitude  of  the  individual  concerned,  the  general 
law  obtains.  Yonder  stands  Aaron.  He  did  not  smite 
the  rock ;  he  did  not  upbraid  the  people ;  it  is  not  re- 
corded that  he  uttered  a  word,  one  way  or  another. 
Moses  was  the  chief  actor  and  spokesman,  Aaron 
was  only  present  and  presumably  consented ;  but 
that  was  enough  to  shut  him  out  of  the  land  of 
promise.  It  bears  upon  this  point,  that  one  will  do 
well  to  scrutinize  the  latent  and  implied  things  in 
life,  such  as  the  associations  into  which  he  is  ac- 
cidentally cast,  the  bargains  and  negotiations  into 
which  he  is  drawn,  the  things  he  takes  for  granted 
without  examination,  and  to  which  he  gives  a  nom- 
inal, perfunctory  assent,  the  use  he  allows  others  to 
make  of  his  name,  influence,  indorsement,  his  pres- 
ence or  absence,  his  speech  or  silence  at  any  given 
time  or  place,  his  open  assent  or  secret  connivance  in 
regard  to  any  matter,  —  any  assumption  which  you 
allow  to  pass  unchallenged,  and  in  which  you  have  a 
stake,  may  conduct  to  unpleasant  and  even  disastrous 
consequences.  So  that  I  really  do  not  care  to  inquire 
what  Aaron's  opinion  was  concerning  those  thirsty 
Hebrews  and  their  ground  of  complaint,  or  what  he 
thought  of  Moses,  his  brother,  in  exceeding  the 
letter  of  the  commandment  and  striking  the  rock 
with  emphatic  vigor  —  the  teaching  does  not  lie 
that  way.  It  rather  lies  in  this  fact :  that  human 
beings  are  inextricably  bound  together,  act  and  re- 
act upon  one  another ;  a  constant  contagion  of  influ- 


THE    PASSING    OF   AARON         211 

ence  and  example  is  going  on,  and  there  are  crises 
when  the  act  of  one  is  the  act  of  all,  all  become  sud- 
denly implicated  and  responsible.  Learn  this,  that 
not  only  what  you  do  and  say,  but  what  you  connive 
at,  quietly  assent  to,  what  you  allow  to  take  place 
having  the  power  to  prevent  it  or  protest  against  it, 
is  what  you  become  accessory  to.  All  these  nega- 
tive, latent  elements  go  into  the  final  computation 
and  sit  upon  your  case  and  condition.  It  does  not 
seem  fair  sometimes  that  one  should  thus  be  swept 
along  helplessly  and  whelmed  in  the  chaotic  roar- 
ing of  the  rapids  and  the  cataract ;  but  it  cannot 
be  helped;  it  is  the  constitution  under  which  we 
live,  and  the  lesson  of  it  is  that  one  should  be  careful 
on  what  waters  he  launches  his  craft  and  sets  sail. 
We  must  exercise  caution.  Many  a  man  has  been 
compromised  and  badly  damaged,  not  by  any  spe- 
cific fault  of  his  own,  but  by  some  amiable  trait,  by 
some  easy  oversight,  by  an  indifferent  acquiescence, 
by  a  spirit  of  accommodation.  It  is  a  significant 
circumstance  and  highly  suggestive,  that  Aaron  only 
stood  by  while  Moses  smote  the  rock ;  but  he  was 
part  of  that  sorry  business;  he  silently  assented, 
and  he  had  to  carry  his  share  of  the  responsibility. 

Passing  this,  another  obvious  fact  developed  by 
this  incident  is  that  there  is  in  this  world  an  unin- 
terrupted flux  of  properties,  positions,  emoluments, 
honors  from  hand  to  hand.  Eleazar  inherits  the 
vestments  and  functions  of  his  father  Aaron;    this 


212  THE    PASSING    OF    AARON 

is  the  law  of  nature  and  the  ordinance  of  God.  They 
wlio  now  stand  in  the  forum,  by  the  bedside,  in 
the  pulpit,  in  the  market,  on  the  exchange,  shall  in 
due  time  hand  over  their  possessions,  their  inven- 
tions and  experience,  to  successors  —  another  gen- 
eration shall  rise  in  their  wake  and  take  up  their 
opportunities  and  do  their  work.  The  man  of  busi- 
ness whose  affairs  are  now  so  manifold  and  intricate 
will,  on  some  coming  day,  commit  the  keys  of  his 
safe,  the  care  of  his  books,  his  investments  and  in- 
come, to  another.  Counting-houses,  courts,  centres 
of  traffic,  will  all  be  vacated  by  the  present  occu- 
pants, and  society  will  roll  on  without  any  reference 
to  those  who  have  been.  This  is  the  kind  of  world 
we  have  entered,  and  it  is  so  ordered  that,  in  each 
generation,  the  fruits  of  toil  shall  be  garnered  and 
secured  for  the  next.  Each  age  hands  over  its  col- 
lected wisdom,  its  accumulation  of  materials,  its 
stores  of  experience;  whatever  triumphs  it  has 
achieved,  whatever  instruments  it  has  invented, 
whatever  political  truths  it  has  elaborated,  what- 
ever laws  of  trade,  or  theories  in  philosophy,  or  arts 
in  war,  or  demonstrations  in  physics  it  has  popu- 
larized ;  from  w^hatever  field  of  adventure  or  inquiry 
the  laborers  bring  their  sheaves,  and  whatever  prog- 
ress is  made  toward  the  amelioration  of  man's 
estate,  all  is  accomplished  under  this  general,  inex- 
orable law,  and  with  the  understanding  that  the  labor 
of  each  is  the  inheritance  of  all,  and  is  in  order  that 


THE    PASSING    OF   AARON         213 

they  who  come  afterward  may  start  better  condi- 
tioned and  equipped.  The  good  men  do  Hves  after 
them.  God  has  ordained  that  the  thoughts  which 
the  human  brain  has  struck  out,  the  moral  heroisms 
that  have  been  set  up,  the  victories  of  patience,  en- 
ergy, fortitude,  and  skill,  the  philanthropies  that 
have  been  organized,  all  that  is  fit  to  live  shall  live, 
all  that  is  essential  shall  enter  into  the  corporate  life 
of  man  and  be  carried  on  to  wider  applications  and 
finer  issues.  The  accumulated  capital  of  the  world, 
of  all  kinds,  cannot  be  lost;  principal  and  interest 
must  descend,  unless  the  old  earth  be  rocked  into 
ashes  by  earthquake,  or  vanish  like  a  star  out  of  the 
heavens. 

This  is  evident,  that  what  each  human  generation 
holds  is  only  a  life  trust.  Like  as  when  Aloses 
stripped  Aaron  of  his  garments  and  put  them  upon 
Eleazar  his  son,  —  taking  the  pure  linen,  his  official 
dress,  and  enfolding  Eleazar  with  it,  decking  his 
brow  with  the  mitre,  transferring  to  him  all  the  in- 
signia of  the  high  priesthood,  —  so  analogically  it  is 
in  the  larger  history  of  mankind.  Life  is  not  a  stag- 
nant pool ;  it  is  a  running  river,  into  wdiich  new 
men,  new  measures,  new  methods,  new  manners, 
new  hopes  and  energies,  evermore  flow.  It  is  an 
overwhelming  thought,  that  of  the  future  and  its 
developments.  Who  would  not  like  to  see  the  map 
of  the  world  and  know  its  opinions  and  customs 
one   hundred  years   hence?     How   will   it   handle 


214         THE    PASSING    OF   AARON 

the  perennial  problems  that  have  vexed  all  cen- 
turies? We  cannot  guess.  This  only  is  certain, 
that  Aaron  will  make  way  for  Eleazar.  Your  son 
will  take  your  place.  Whether  he  will  be  a  better 
man  than  you  is  a  different  question ;  probably  you 
hope  so.  Posterity  will  settle  upon  your  estates  and 
discharge  your  duties,  or  corresponding  ones.  Not 
an  altogether  agreeable  reflection,  nevertheless  one 
that  will  bear  pondering  and  inwardly  digesting. 
Every  few  years  God  empties  the  earth,  wipes  it 
and  turns  it  upside  down  like  a  dish,  and  brings  in 
a  fresh  influx  of  men  and  things  and  thoughts.  God 
keeps  the  earth  green  and  young  and  vital,  sweeps 
a  generation  off  the  planet  every  three  or  four  dec- 
ades, saving  so  much  of  their  wardrobe  and  furni- 
ture as  can  be  adapted  to  a  younger  race.  It  would 
not  answer  that  men  should  live  forever  under  the 
present  order;  they  would  grow  obstinate,  obstruc- 
tive ;  and  hence  when  habit  becomes  fixed  and  char- 
acter formed,  and  opinion  matured,  the  individual 
lingers  a  little  longer  to  do  his  work  and  add  his 
mite  to  the  world's  sum,  and  then  is  retired.  His 
influence  lives  and  widens  like  a  ripple;  it  is  not 
utterly  effaced,  but  tells  upon  the  future,  in  unsus- 
pected ways,  and  so  the  total  impression  made  by 
one's  character  is  silently  propagated.  There  is 
such  a  thing  undoubtedly  as  the  transmission  of  in- 
fluence and  of  the  fruits  of  a  great  example.  Thus 
Moses'  decalogue  lies  at  the  base  of  subsequent  leg- 


THE    PASSING    OF   AARON         215 

islation,  —  he  has  not  perished ;  and  the  Levitical 
priesthood  has  furnished  the  type  for  elaborate, 
hierarchical  churches.  Aaron  dies,  but  not  his  work. 
The  past  with  its  populations  is  asleep,  but  the  truths 
it  held,  its  virtue  and  manliness,  its  relation  to  the 
larger  life  of  the  world,  still  survives. 

Remember  also  in  this  connection  a  point  of  prac- 
tical importance :  it  sometimes  happens  that  estates 
and  responsibilities  descend  from  able  hands  to  those 
not  equally  competent  to  deal  with  them.  It  does  not 
appear  that  this  was  the  case  of  Eleazar.  He  was  of 
the  tribe  of  Levi,  and  had  served  at  the  altar;  he 
was  not  a  novice,  but  one  fit  for  promotion.  The 
analogy,  nevertheless,  does  not  always  hold.  Fre- 
quently are  opportunities  and  privileges  entailed 
upon  persons  who  speedily  make  manifest  their  in- 
capacity and  unworthiness.  Eleazar  sometimes  does 
not  look  well  in  the  vestments  of  Aaron,  but  ex- 
tremely feeble  and  absurd.  It  is  a  melancholy  con- 
trast, yet  one  which  often  confronts  us,  to  see  a 
man  who  is  a  real  personal  force,  of  high  character 
and  strong  intellect,  leave  his  name,  prestige,  wealth, 
business,  all  his  traditions,  to  some  nerveless  heir 
without  moral  stamina,  without  energy,  earnestness, 
or  seriousness.  How  often  it  happens  that  he  who 
comes  after  the  king  is  not  kingly,  and  the  end  of 
it  all  is  waste  and  disaster !  All  the  rich  freight  under 
management  of  a  vain,  self-sufficient,  indolent,  un- 
steady hand  heads  on  the  reef  and  goes  down  to 


2i6         THE    PASSING    OF    AARON 

the  ooze  and  slime  of  the  sea.  You  hear  a  crash 
and  a  groan ;  there  are  a  few  bubbles  and  all  is  over. 
It  is  one  of  the  commonplaces  of  life  that  the  liberal 
endowments  and  supremacies  of  divers  kinds,  — 
capital,  property,  position,  good  name,  —  pass  rap- 
idly from  hand  to  hand,  do  not  remain  long  in 
one  connection.  What  the  ancestor  accumulates  the 
descendant  squanders,  and  the  painful  reason  of  it 
is  that  Eleazar  is  not  always  large  and  noble  enough 
to  wear  the  vestments  of  Aaron  his  father.  There 
is  a  deep  secret  here  that  philosophers  and  physiolo- 
gists have  not  yet  guessed.  They  cannot  exactly  say 
why  poor  Hannah  supplied  a  primate,  a  prophet,  a 
great  judge,  a  born  leader  of  men  to  the  Hebrew 
commonwealth,  while  Eli,  who  had  the  precedence 
and  stood  in  the  line  of  succession,  could  furnish 
nothing  better  than  Hophni  and  Phinehas.  This  is 
a  field  wherein  all  calculations  go  astray.  A  child 
may  be  cradled  in  purple  and  have  more  masters 
hired  to  teach  him  than  Closes  studied  under  in 
Egypt;  he  may  learn  everything  under  the  sun 
and  moon,  yet  there  may  be  in  him  a  flaw,  an 
obliquity,  with  which  no  natural  traditions  or  ad- 
vantageous antecedents  can  contend;  some  essential 
element  of  success  lacking,  which  will  shatter  the 
sceptre  of  his  priority  and  hand  over  his  chances  to 
another  who  has  what  he  is  fatally  defective  in.  This 
is  a  great  mystery,  but  a  common  spectacle,  —  an 
Eleazar  not  large  enough  to  wear  the  vestments  of 


THE    PASSING    OF    AARON  217 

Aaron.  You  have  seen  that  sight.  There  are  cer- 
tain radical  quahties  and  tempers  which  cannot  be 
purposely  transmitted  or  artificially  made.  You  can 
supply  means  and  materials,  you  can  put  a  person 
in  a  favorable  condition,  you  can  offer  a  choice,  but 
you  cannot  make  him  choose  right. 

Observe  too,  that  under  God's  providence  no 
one  is  absolutely  indispensable  to  the  integrity  of 
this  system  of  things  and  to  the  supreme  purpose. 
What  an  impressive  scene  and  awful  hour  that  was 
when  Moses  took  off  his  brother  Aaron  the  ephod  of 
fine  linen  and  his  girdle  and  robe,  —  and  the  breast- 
plate with  its  flashing  jewels;  and  last  of  all  his 
mitre,  the  priestly  diadem  inscribed  with  "  Holiness 
to  the  Lord."  What  an  ordeal  this  for  Moses ! 
Think  of  the  breathless  silence  and  the  choking 
grief  with  which  he  must  have  addressed  himself 
to  the  sad  business.  And  then,  the  last  farewell, 
the  last  embrace !  Must  not  the  souls  of  these  two 
valiant  men,  who  had  together  weathered  so  many 
trials,  been  lashed  and  flooded  like  the  beach  when 
storms  are  abroad?  But  the  divine  idea  in  the  ex- 
odus did  not  hinge  upon  any  one  man  or  event. 
And  this  is  a  comfortable  truth,  in  a  general  way. 
The  work  does  not  depend  upon  this  or  that  master- 
workman.  God  can  spare  even  great  men  of  big 
brain  and  large  heart  and  noble  nature;  He  can 
strike  down  the  leaders  without  affecting  the  broad 
tendency  of  things  or   impairing  the  best   results. 


2i8         THE    PASSING    OF   AARON 

The  principle  or  policy  for  which  they  stand  shall  be 
carried  forward,  Eleazar  will  take  up  the  role  of 
Aaron.  This  is  the  way  of  God  with  men,  —  a  shift- 
ing stage  of  scenes  and  actors,  —  and  thus  the  right 
impression  is  made,  that  not  the  individual,  not  the 
instrumentality,  but  the  idea,  the  solid,  enduring 
benefit,  is  the  essential  thing.  Aaron  dies,  but  the 
priesthood  does  not  perish,  the  altar  is  not  over- 
thrown ;   it  passes  on  from  age  to  age. 

This  is  indeed  a  blessed  truth,  that  God's  purpose 
for  man  does  not  hinge  upon  any  battle,  treaty, 
legislation,  political  party  or  statesman,  nor  upon  any 
church ;  these  are  all  tools  which  He  can  use  or 
discard  according  to  His  will.  It  is  important  that 
we  recognize  this  cardinal  and  encouraging  fact,  that 
a  rational  and  benevolent  purpose  underlies  the  earth 
and  man,  and  that  it  is  in  slow  process  of  disen- 
tanglement and  manifestation.  The  individual 
withers  and  dies,  a  generation  passes  off  the  stage, 
but  knowledge,  virtue,  religion  do  not  perish ;  the 
great  truths  and  hopes  of  the  race  survive  and 
bloom  afresh  and  wax  strong.  God's  purpose  is 
as  vast  as  eternity,  as  big  as  "  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  forever  " ;  it  is  just  beginning  to  rise  on  the 
globe,  only  reddening  the  sky  and  tipping  with  gold 
the  highest  summits.  Faith  in  this  doctrine  was 
what  helped  Moses  to  strip  Aaron  of  his  garments 
and  put  them  on  Eleazar,  his  son. 

Let  us  take  hold  of  the  truth  that  made  Moses 


THE    PASSING   OF   AARON         219 

strong.  Let  us  believe  profoundly  in  God,  in  the 
holy  will  of  God,  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Thus 
only  by  faith  in  the  Unseen  and  an  earnest  life  shall 
we  be  able  to  do  and  to  bear  all  things,  and  finally 
to  overcome. 


THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE 

After  this  I  beheld,  and  lo,  a  great  midtitnde,  which  no 
Tnan  could  nuttiber,  of  all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  peoples 
and  to7tgues,  stood  before  the  throne,  and  before  the  Lamb 
clothed  in  white  robes,  and  palms  in  their  hands : 
And  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  saying,  Salvation  to  our  God 
which  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb.  —  Rev- 
elation vii,  9,  lo, 

SOME  expositors  have  sngg-ested  that  this  mag- 
nificent passage  is  satisfied  by  reference  to  the 
rehef  of  the  Church  from  the  persecutions 
of  Roman  Emperors  and  the  large  accessions  it 
received  during  the  period  of  toleration  and  pros- 
perity that  succeeded  Constantine  and  came  in  with 
him.  There  are,  however,  features  of  this  descrip- 
tion which  scarcely  comport  with  this  theory.  For 
John  beheld  this  splendid  pageant  transacted  in  the 
Divine  Presence  and  in  the  heavenly  world,  not  in 
time,  but  apparently  in  a  sphere  above  time.  The 
reaction  under  the  later  Roman  Empire  from  the 
cruelty  of  an  intolerant  age  hardly  satisfies  this  pic- 
ture, and  there  is  probably  a  larger  sense  in  which 
the  apostolic  vision  stands  unfulfilled  or  is  gradually 
in  process  of  fulfilment  as  the  spirits  of  the  right- 
eous dead  pass  into  the  unseen  and  to  other  occupa- 
tions.    Apostle  John's  language  implies  that  those 


THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE  221 

whom  he  beheld  stood  in  a  transfigured,  glorified 
condition  and  exempt  from  all  anxiety  and  danger, 
so  that  it  may  not  be  wide  of  the  mark  to  say  that 
there  will  be  no  complete  fulfilment  of  this  proph- 
ecy until  the  invisible  church  is  gathered.  At  any 
rate,  it  js  noticeable  that  when  John  saw  this  great 
sight  the  church  was  not  in  process  of  being  selected 
and  aggregated;  this  had  already  been  done;  it 
was  a  translated  and  jubilant  company,  called  out 
of  all  nations,  kindred,  people,  and  tongues. 

It  is  inferable,  then,  from  this  passage,  that  the 
present  era  of  evangelization  is  not  a  fixture,  but  a 
period  intercalated  for  a  special  purpose;  and  when 
this  purpose  is  accomplished,  another  administration 
of  God  over  mankind  will  succeed.  All  that  we  see 
is  In  flux.  Every  institute,  opinion,  government, 
fashion  is  a  pedler  with  his  pack,  passing  by  on  the 
road  and  over  the  hills  and  out  of  sight.  Nothing 
stays  long,  and  if  it  overstays  its  time  is  admonished. 
Hence  no  forms,  methods,  opinions,  thus  far,  have 
escaped  modification.  Our  world  is  not  an  inorganic 
mineral,  but  a  prolific  seed,  putting  forth  eyes  and 
buds,  and  coming  evermore  to  the  blossom.  So  that 
while  everything  is  good  in  its  season,  nothing  is  good 
permanently,  and  God  does  not  intend  the  best,  thus 
far,  to  last.  Consequently  the  right  view  of  the 
world  is  that  of  a  temporary  staging,  a  wayside  inn 
where  one  makes  shift  to  spend  the  night.  Every- 
thing exists  by  virtue  of  the  idea  or  final  end  that 


222  THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE 

inhabits  it;  and  when  this  is  answered,  the  husk 
falls  and  enriches  the  soil  for  the  next  growth.  So 
it  comes  to  pass  that  though  some  institutions  have 
more  vitality  and  persistence  than  others,  none  of 
them  is  metaphysically  eternal  in  its  present  shape. 
Each  is  only  a  garment  of  God  that  will  be  shifted 
after  awhile. 

Hence  it  is  observable  that  the  Bible  does  not  en- 
courage men  to  build  securely  upon  earthly  founda- 
tions, but  rumbles  with  a  coming  crisis  when  extant 
appointments  and  upholsteries  shall  be  taken  down, 
refashioned  and  readapted  for  another  era.  Even 
the  gospel  and  its  world-wide  proclamation  of  re- 
demption is  not  excluded  from  this  universal  rule, 
but  is  represented  as  an  episode.  God  has  some- 
thing beyond  to  which  this  miraculous  Christianity 
is  the  entry.  Not  that  the  globe  itself  will  neces- 
sarily perish  and  pass  away  in  smoke;  on  the 
contrary,  the  perpetuity  of  the  earth  seems  to  be 
guaranteed,  or,  at  any  rate,  broadly  hinted  at  in  the 
Bible;  but  it  will  be  transformed,  swept,  and  gar- 
nished, its  abominations  cast  out,  nuisances  abated, 
and  all  its  tribes,  rational  and  irrational,  delivered 
from  the  bondage  of  the  curse,  from  the  dominion 
and  incubus  of  sin.  Of  course,  if  this  is  a  future 
in  store  for  the  earth,  any  one  may  see  that  the 
gospel,  in  its  present  form,  will  need  to  be  modified 
some  coming  day ;  its  errand  will  be  discharged ; 
it  will  come  to  its  term,  when  it  shall  no  longer  be 


THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE  223 

necessary  for  one  to  say  to  another,  "  Know  the 
Lord,  for  all  shall  know  Him."  The  Christian  re- 
ligion, as  we  know  it,  has  a  work  and  a  destiny; 
and  when  this  is  achieved,  its  warfare  will  be  accom- 
plished, its  particular  errand  done,  and  it  will  pass 
into  another  phase  or  manifestation.  Man,  I  sup- 
pose, is  not  to  be  preached  to  and  prayed  over 
to  all  eternity.  It  is  hardly  reasonable  or  even  pos- 
sible to  think  this.  The  divine  purpose  incarnate 
in  Jesus  Christ  will  surely  be  fulfilled  in  some  future 
era,  and  a  new  order  of  things  will  supervene.  Until 
that  date  the  gospel  will  go  sounding  on  its  way, 
passing  from  land  to  land,  crossing  seas,  sailing  up 
the  rivers,  belting  the  globe,  journeying  from  polar 
snows  to  southern  suns,  pressing  onward  through 
these  secular  ages,  gathering  the  multitude  which  no 
man  can  number. 

I  think  this  is  clearly  foreshadowed  by  Saint 
John's  vision,  that  an  age  is  coming  when  the  pres- 
ent aspects  of  religious  truth  and  all  the  symbolisms 
of  Christian  worship,  the  sacraments  of  the  church, 
its  sacred  songs  and  methods  of  evangelization, 
will  undergo  a  change  and  reveal  a  deeper  mean- 
ing. Perhaps  we  do  not  sufficiently  reflect  upon  this. 
Our  natural  instinct  and  desire  is  that  all  things 
shall  continue  as  they  are.  Our  ideas  are  secular, 
utilitarian,  materialistic.  Even  the  Christian  church 
has  largely  sunk  to  a  commercial  basis,  and  calcu- 
lates success  in  pounds  and  pennies,  in  dollars  and 


224  THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE 

cents.  The  natural  man  likes  to  think  that  the  world 
will  last  in  its  present  phase  forever.  His  millen- 
nium means  business,  expanding  trade,  new  mar- 
kets, prosperity.  There  is  nothing  transcendent  or 
mystical  in  his  theory  of  the  world;  all  is  perfectly 
palpable  and  ponderable.  For  him  it  is  a  place  of 
sawmills  and  power  looms  and  railway  systems  and 
steel  manufacture,  of  machinery,  plant,  and  com- 
mercial paper.  It  is  largely  true  that  this  old  earth 
as  it  swings,  crowded  with  corporations,  constitu- 
tions, conventions,  and  all  its  mundane  furniture 
and  fixtures,  is,  to  our  common  thinking,  a  finality. 
We  want  nothing  better,  we  know  nothing  better,  we 
believe  nothing  better.  We  do  not  like  to  look  upon 
it  all  as  provisional,  temporary,  a  mere  moment  in  the 
eternity  of  God,  a  sacred  fact,  moreover,  inasmuch  as 
it  connects  with  advancing  and  unspeakable  destinies. 
But  this  is  unquestionably  the  doctrine  and  out- 
look of  the  Bible;  if  there  is  any  truth  in  Christ's 
gospel,  to  this  we  are  tending.  The  whole  economy 
of  this  present,  all,  both  secular  and  religious,  is 
dimly  feeling  its  way  toward  another  settlement  on 
better  foundations,  toward  a  new  and  brighter  era 
in  the  government  of  God.  This  tremendous  prem- 
ise underlies  John's  vision.  As  he  gazed,  the  old 
earth  seemed  rolled  away,  its  harsh  histories  of 
blood  and  contention  forgotten;  the  roar  of  time 
had  died  out;  the  smoke  and  din  of  human  indus- 
try, the  glitter  of  man's  civilization,  had  faded ;  while 


THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE  225 

in  niicl-air  and  as  upon  a  sapphire  pavement,  he  saw 
other  styles  of  Hfe,  and  young,  strong,  radiant 
creatures  busied  with  congenial  avocations.  It 
seems  to  be  a  pictured  prophecy  of  a  new  society, 
a  spiritual  race  gathered  out  of  all  the  centuries  of 
time  and  all  the  generations  of  mankind.  For,  ob- 
serve, a  peculiarity  in  John's  statement :  he  says 
that  he  beheld  a  countless  multitude  out  of  all 
nations  and  tongues.  There  was  nothing  ethnic  or 
sectional ;  no  geographical  lines,  no  rigorous  exclu- 
sion of  any  caste  or  blood.  From  sharply  contrasted 
civilizations,  from  every  dialect  of  human  speech 
and  every  kingdom  under  the  sun,  the  inspired 
prophet  saw  some  representative.  Surely  this  was 
a  marvellous  dream !  And  what  does  it  signify  in 
the  realm  of  solid  fact?  With  our  best  lights,  it 
must  mean  that  before  the  gospel  of  redemption  has 
accomplished  its  mission  and  whole  cycle  of  achieve- 
ment, it  will  have  shone  on  every  land  and  called  out 
of  every  tribe  and  race  trophies  of  its  power. 

Clearly,  the  universalism  of  the  gospel,  its  pli- 
ancy, adaptability,  magnetic  property,  is  hereby 
indicated.  Out  of  all  the  polyglot  populations  of 
earth  it  had  drawn  adherents,  according  to  this 
mighty  picture  of  the  revelator.  How  singular  that 
the  son  of  Jewish  Zebedee,  incrusted  with  the  illib- 
eral prejudices  of  his  people,  should  have  reached 
such  a  generalization.  Had  he  said,  "  I  saw  our 
patriarchs  seated  on  cloudy  thrones,  clad  in  purple 

15 


226  THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE 

and  gold;  I  saw  the  chief  men  of  our  Hebrew  race 
in  high  and  palmy  state;  but  I  saw  no  outlander, 
no  Greek,  no  Roman,  no  Egyptian,"  one  would 
reflect  this  is  natural,  this  is  Jewish,  this  is  what 
might  be  expected.  But  instead  of  this  narrow 
horizon,  mark  the  amplitude  of  his  conception. 
Nations  among  the  antipodes,  strong  populous  em- 
pires beyond  his  sunset,  John  saw  mingling  in  full 
agreement  on  his  crowded  canvas.  Evidently  it 
was  no  optical  illusion  of  his,  but  a  series  of  great 
historical  facts  which  we  actually  see  getting  trans- 
acted, through  these  noisy  years,  and  whose  climax 
is  not  yet  in  sight.  The  Christian  gospel  is  making 
the  circuit  of  the  globe,  gradually  gathering  volume 
and  escort  and  compacting  a  new  composite  nation, 
Vv'hich  shall  be  homogeneous  because  drawn  together 
by  a  similar  sympathy  and  hope.  But  although  the 
Seer  makes  it  plain  that  those  whom  he  saw  were  a 
selection  or  election,  it  is  not  thereby  implied  that 
they  were  a  minority  or  slender  fraction  of  the  entire 
race  who  wore  the  white  robes  and  waved  the  palms. 
He  does  not  touch  that  question.  He  simply  says, 
"  I  beheld,  and,  lo,  a  great  multitude,  which  no  man 
could  number."  An  inquisitive  person  accosted 
Jesus  upon  one  of  his  tours  concerning  this  very 
subject :  "  Master,  are  there  few  that  be  saved  ?  " 
A  supremely  interesting  question,  that  elicited  only 
an  indirect  and  unsatisfactory  response  from  Christ. 
But  his  apostle  John  here  supplies  an  answer.     He 


THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE  227 

declares  that  he  beheld  a  great  and  countless  multi- 
tude on  the  floor  of  heaven;  not  a  few,  but  a  vast 
and  motley  assemblage.  Not  infrequently  it  is  al- 
leged against  evangelical  theology  that  it  represents 
this  world  as  a  forlorn,  weltering  wreck,  from  whose 
floating  spars  and  timbers  only  a  handful  of  shiver- 
ing wretches  is  picked  off  and  safe  landed,  leaving 
the  majority  to  perish;  or  a  kind  of  glass  house  or 
conservatory,  to  ripen  a  few  choice  and  rare  exotics. 
This  is  an  unfair  cavil.  I  am  not  aware  that  any 
system  of  theology  —  not  even  Calvinism  —  has 
ever  published  a  census  of  the  saved  or  committed 
itself  definitely  and  irrevocably  to  any  calculation 
upon  this  subject. 

The  universal  church,  by  catholic  consent,  has 
long  held  and  holds,  that  God  has  rounded  this  globe 
for  a  successful  experiment  and  not  to  inaugu- 
rate a  failure,  and  that  when  the  histories  of  time 
shall  be  written,  it  will  be  found  that  the  countless 
multitude  whom  John  heard  chanting  salvation  unto 
God  was  not  a  slender  remnant  of  the  earth's  mighty 
populations,  but  humanity  as  a  whole.  Looking  at 
the  stream  of  human  life  from  any  one  point,  count- 
ing only  the  stars  that  cross  our  meridian,  one  might 
readily  doubt  this  conclusion ;  but  taking  the  entire 
sweep  of  the  ages  under  the  play  of  divine  influ- 
ence, from  chaos  clear  down  to  the  consummation, 
it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that,  eventually,  it  will 
be  found  God  has  redeemed  the  race,  as  a  whole. 


228  THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE 

through  the  mediation  of  Christ.  At  least,  one  is 
not  forbidden,  by  any  text  in  the  Bible,  to  enter- 
tain such  a  hope.  In  one  way  it  is  true  that,  from 
of  old,  the  earth  has  been  a  hot-house  to  protect 
and  nurture  a  few  fine  specimens,  and  to  show  how 
high  thought,  originality,  invention,  artistic  genius, 
and  religious  inspiration  can  rise  in  man.  High 
human  possibilities  have  been  realized  in  select 
spirits,  in  powerful  personalities,  and  not  in  the 
common  average.  Take  any  age,  and  only  a  few 
masterful,  volitional  individuals  are  found  to  be 
the  mainsprings  of  its  movement,  and  to  voice  its 
dumb  feeling  and  give  effect  to  its  tendencies.  A 
few  sublime  actions,  a  few  noble  heroisms,  a  few 
dramatic  crises,  a  short  tract  of  literary  or  artistic 
excellence,  is  pretty  much  all  that  any  century  has 
to  point  to ;  the  balance  is  a  dead  level  of  monotony 
overgrown  with  broom  and  tangle.  Ask  the  re- 
nowned ages  of  history  what  they  have  to  say  for 
themselves,  and  they  will  tell  you  of  their  men  of 
vision,  of  authentic  fire,  of  leadership,  and  original 
greatness.  So  that  if  we  were  to  argue  from  the 
ground  of  purely  natural  analogies,  it  would  not 
appear  by  any  means  certain  that  the  purpose  of 
God  has  marked  for  final  promotion  and  pre-emi- 
nence a  great  multitude  which  no  man  can  number. 
It  is  not  so  here ;  most  are  ciphers,  mere  consumers, 
not  producers,  not  potential.  So  that  the  doctrine 
that  a  numerical  majority  of  the  human  family  shall 


THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE  229 

come  to  honor  and  glory  and  immortality  does  not 
find  all  the  analogy  and  strong  confirmation  one 
would  want  from  present  observation  and  experi- 
ence. It  is  rather  a  revealed  truth,  and  does  not 
derive  its  strength  from  nature  and  man's  collec- 
tive history  on  this  planet.  This  world  and  its  long, 
painful  story  abounds  in  shipwrecks,  in  failures  and 
downfalls,  in  disastrous  examples,  in  blasted  hopes, 
in  untimely  fruit  fallen,  in  seeds  that  have  been 
blown  away  or  devoured  by  birds,  in  towers  that 
have  been  started  and  stopped  in  mid-air  for  lack  of 
counting  their  cost.  Life  often  looks  like  a  quixotic 
pilgrimage  in  search  of  fabulous  lands  and  golden 
apples  and  the  blessed  Atlantis.  Many  are  called, 
but  few  chosen ;  all  run,  but  one  receiveth  the  prize. 
This  is  the  state  of  man.  But  taking  the  whole  case 
together,  we  are  authorized  to  believe  both  by  our 
moral  instinct  and  by  the  Bible,  that  God  will  not 
suffer  defeat  or  disappointment,  that  an  innumerable 
multitude  shall  put  on  white  robes  and  carry  palms 
of  victory  in  some  coming  age.  Jesus  declares  that 
*'  many  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  in  the  kingdom  of  God."  And  John,  in  vision 
on  Patmos,  saw  a  great  company,  praising  God  with 
loud,  consenting  voice. 

A  remaining  suggestion  of  this  high  passage 
respects  the  reason  why  that  immense  white-robed 
company  with  their  palm-branches  were  enskied  and 
enraptured  as  the  inspired  revelator  saw  them.     It 


230  THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE 

was  because  of  their  faith  and  faithfulness  that 
they  were  worthy  of  the  rest,  peace,  and  joy  unto 
which  they  had  attained.  And  this  their  victory  and 
blessed  experience  confirms  the  important  truth  that 
the  main  concern,  after  all,  is  that  inward,  spiritual 
fitness  and  preparation  which  is  at  once  the  omen  of 
a  higher  and  sinless  life  and  the  passport  into  it. 
This  is  the  essential  and  enduring  value,  more  to 
be  desired  than  gold,  fame,  pleasure.  It  is  relatively 
unimportant  whether  you  make  good  your  entrance 
among  the  optimates  of  society,  the  inner  circle  of 
the  rich,  refined,  renowned;  but  you  will  surely 
want  to  be  among  the  great  multitude  which  no 
man  could  number,  and  whom  John  saw,  reflecting 
the  light  of  heaven  from  their  dazzling  robes  and 
waving  their  palms  in  the  still  air.  This  will  be  a 
higher  distinction  than  any  you  can  win  here.  The 
earth  and  its  history  doubtless  looked  like  a  wreath 
of  smoke  to  them.  All  in  their  past  that  was  un- 
toward and  irksome  had  come  to  solution,  had 
been  reduced  to  finest  results.  They  now  under- 
stood the  meaning  of  their  sorrows,  poverty,  pains, 
and  tears,  and  all  the  dark  things  of  their  earthly 
experience.  The  future,  too,  stretched  away  be- 
fore them,  an  untrodden  tract  along  which  fresh 
joys,  informations,  intimacies  would  spring  up.  No 
wonder  they  shouted  Salvation!  From  all  the 
storms  and  perils  of  this  anxious  world,  from  this 
weary  kingdom  of  time,  from  the  rude  shocks  of 


THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE  231 

fortune,  from  the  wreck  of  fond  hopes,  from  sordid 
drudgeries,  from  the  frictions,  enmities,  uncongeni- 
ahties  of  Hfe,  from  the  deceitfulness  of  man  and 
from  the  strife  of  tongues,  from  the  mists  of  igno- 
rance, suspense,  and  painful  doubt,  from  all  that 
was  burdensome  and  untoward  in  their  lot,  they 
were  forever  delivered.  No  wonder  John,  the  Seer, 
describes  the  mystical  temple  of  the  future  as  ringing 
through  all  its  arches  with  the  thunderous  hosan- 
nahs  of  the  ransomed. 

And  what  secular  greatness  or  honor  is  fit  to  be 
likened  to  those  unspeakable  things  God  hath  pre- 
pared for  them  that  love  Him?  Surely  you  will 
want  to  be  gathered  to  that  numberless  nation  that 
John,  in  lonely  Patmos,  espied  one  day,  as  the  pon- 
derous gates  of  the  invisible  world  swung  inward 
on  their  hinges  and  he  caught  the  fall  of  cease- 
less songs  and  the  gleam  of  palms  and  robes. 
Membership  in  that  church,  written  in  heaven,  — 
this  is  the  noblest  ambition,  this  is  the  chief  end  of 
man.  This,  indeed,  is  the  only  church,  worthy  the 
name,  —  the  invisible  church,  the  church  of  the 
great  multitude,  which  no  man  can  number.  Many 
there  be  who  go  asking  for  the  church,  where  it  is, 
which  it  is.  There  is  none  fit  to  be  called  such  save 
this :  the  invisible  communion  of  saints,  the  vast 
congregation,  slowly  gathering  out  of  all  times, 
peoples,  and  tongues.  One  who  belongs  to  this  com- 
pany need  not  look  further.    This  is  indeed  the  holy 


232  THE    GREAT    MULTITUDE 

catholic  church,  constituted  not  by  a  tactual  succes- 
sion from  the  Apostles,  but  by  an  inward  witness  of 
sonship  to  God,  by  an  assurance  of  God's  love  and 
a  persistent  sense  of  the  divine  presence  and  of  the 
companionship  of  Christ.  Whosoever  has  such 
spiritual  sympathies  has  no  occasion  to  inquire  dili- 
gently about  any  visible  organization.  What  we 
want  is  life,  eternal  life,  union  with  the  infinite  God, 
whose  omnipresence  makes  the  universe,  and  who  is 
the  deep,  fundamental  reality  upon  which  it  rests. 

This  is  the  way  in  which  the  great  multitude  was 
gathered  out  of  all  times  and  peoples.  They  were 
drawn  together  by  a  catholic  instinct,  by  a  common 
faith,  by  a  supreme  loyalty  to  all  the  truth  revealed 
to  them  and  to  the  highest  moral  sanctions  which 
they  knew.  They  came  to  see,  each  in  his  day, 
that  God  is  the  only  satisfaction  of  the  soul.  Those 
of  them  wdio  lived  in  pre-Christian  ages  believed 
in  the  essential  Christ  and  would  have  followed  the 
historical  Christ  had  they  known  him. 

Join  yourself,  then,  to  this  countless  company  of 
the  faithful ;  the  universal  family  of  God  in  all 
lands,  in  all  times.  It  is  the  only  kingdom  that  will 
stand,  the  kingdom  of  the  saints  —  the  pure  in 
heart  shall  see  God. 


The  University  Press,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


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